Lions and Tigers and Bears...oh, my!

Photo by Michelle Forman.

Coming our way!!

Today several Wolf Pack swimmers volunteered at the Animal Ark, a wildlife sanctuary in Reno.  The Animal Ark is the home for tigers (one red, one white), cheetahs, mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, kit foxes, bears, tortoises, and various raptors (of the bird variety...not the Jurassic Park kind).  We built a Bear Rehab Enclosure where the Animal Ark will house orphaned cubs this winter and spring.  Our goal was to transport branches and logs burned in a fire in the late 1990s to the area where the enclosure will be.  Because the Animal Ark hopes to release the cubs back into the wild, they needed a barrier in front of the enclosure to prevent the bears from seeing visitors; in the past, bears have become too humanized to be released back into the wild.

Misha's phat ride right... before Melina had to push it up the hill. 

The building station.

Basically, we made two stations:  One group worked at the fire site, untangling branches and trying not to impale themselves or each other as they loaded the bracken into a rather aged trailer attached to a rad four-wheeler driven by none other than Captain Misha Fotoohi.  Misha (and an assistant who would perform the all-important task of punching secret codes into key pads that opened gates into official areas) would drive the trailer of sticks beyond the tiger habitat, up a steep hill, and behind the cheetah habitat where Steve directed the unloading and building process.  By the end of the day, the team had built an 8-foot wall from the firewood.  

We left with a few flesh wounds, torn articles of clothing, filthy faces, and gratitude that no one was eaten by the white tiger whose roar made my ribs shake and our Brazilian swimmer, Luiza, almost run back to Brazil.

Good work, in a good place, on a good day, with a GREAT team.

Group picture by Steve.

Group picture by Luiza.