The "shortcut" will be clearly marked with colour coded arrows which will lessen the despair of the distance by encouraging decreasing distances 100m, 80m, and 40m.

The Tea in Paradise, Hornbills for Africa, the new Ostrich, Emu, Rhea and Cassowary pens are the most remarkable additions to the World of Birds and the visitors' experience for this year. And now, that Hylton Ross has introduced the Hop-on Hop-off Bus which calls four times a day, that allows tourists to choose between Kirstenbosch and World of Birds and Hout Bay Harbour and Camps Bay, starting and ending at the Waterfront, World of Birds has become accessible even to those who do not or choose not to drive, an option which has long been overdue.

Wild Women, Wild Dogs And Wild Men

(Part I)

by Mandy Young

This journey of self-discovery that is now facilitated for guests, begun with the African Wild Dogs, or Painted Hunting Dogs, as I prefer to call them. I spent six initial years observing these endearing, exciting pack animals in Madikwe, Pilhanesberg and Hluhluwe-Umfolosi Game Reserves and at Kruger National Park in South Africa and in Hwange Game Reserve and the Savi Conservancy in Zimbabwe. The initial lesson I learnt from the Painted Hunting Dogs was that early man and the wild dogs only survived as a species because they nurtured kinship bonds, they did not have the equipment to survive on their own. 'We still don't have the equipment to survive on our own, that is the telling tale of many people I see in my Practice as a Psychotherapist, 'in fact much research indicates that despite westernized value systems that advocate self-sufficiency and striving to get ahead no matter who you stand on in the process, we need each other. People who experience the normal stress and strains of city life and many traumas like death of a loved one, divorce, highjacking, robbery, etc. find it a lot easier to manage and survive these ordeals if they have strong social networks of family and friends, those who do not, often suffer emotional breakdowns, depression and other mentally impoverished conditions.

I initially observed the behavior of capture bred African Wild Dogs, compared to those who had been born and bred in the wild. I was privileged to observe unique documentary footage taken at Cango Wild Life Ranch of a wild dog in captivity, with her Alpha male in attendance, giving birth to her pups. In a wild dog pack there is only one reproductory pair, the Alpha male and female, who usually bond for life. The Alpha male was in attendance at the birth. I was impressed with the way he helped release the pups from their mother's womb, but he was most preoccupied with the welfare of the Alpha female. The way in which this Alpha pair were operating reminded me of the more conservative and traditional male and female roles that used to be performed in our society - where mothers who were physiologically and psychologically best equipped to nurture and feed their children in those early developmental years of their lives, were freed up to do so by an attentive, protective and providing husband.

There are many lessons we can learn from the animals we observe, and I encourage you to re-discover aspects of your own intuitive, femininity or masculinity as partners, parents or as a single person in the Wild Women, Wild Dogs and Wild Men Ecotherapy Experience facilitated at Madikwe Game Reserve in the North Western Province. The fourth largest game reserve in South Africa that boasts the biggest translocation of animals in the world, 18,000 buck, bird, lion, hippo and members of the ‘big 5’ , including the endangered African Wild Dogs, into an area of land with rolling hills and vast open plains, that used to be poorly run cattle farms! We stay in the laagered raized bungalows of Mosetlha Bushcamp where safety is secured, but there are no fences between man and beast.