Animal Kingdom – Casela

For some reason I forgot to post these with the rest of my Mauritius posts last month! I went to Casela Nature Reserve on the penultimate day of my trip to Mauritius and as I LOVE animals I was completely in my element.

It’s been two years since I last visited and most of my thoughts are the same. The enclosures at Casela are huge which I think is brilliant. The larger animals (tigers, rhinos, zebras etc) share a huge safari style enclosure, and you’re not guaranteed a glimpse as there’s loads of spaces the animals can run off and avoid the visitors if they wish, which I think is great (although some people were complaining).

I was particularly emotional about seeing the rhinos; an entire species of animal which will almost certainly be extinct within our lifetimes. 3 subspecies were declared extinct in 2011, and poaching numbers are increasing by almost 50% each year. There are less than 100 individual Javan and Sumatran rhinos and just 3 individual White rhinos left in the entire world, which is heartbreaking.

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The animals have a lot of space to wander around and the fences and dividers between the smaller enclosures seemed almost non-existent this trip. I really like this aspect of the Park, as instead of seeing one animal per enclosure it was more like a free-for-all with animals roaming around between different areas. I saw lemurs hanging out with the tortoises, peacocks with the giraffes and a pet pig hanging out with the baby goats.

There were also random wild animals; we saw wild monkeys stealing food from the giraffes, lizards in the rabbit enclosure, and even a cheeky mongoose in with the giant tortoises. Talk about animal kingdom! Overall I think Casela is a great animal and nature reserve and I haven’t seen one that better typifies what a zoo should “be”, in my opinion. Where should I check out next?

Moomin Skirt

I’ve been a big fan of the Moomins from a young age and like most people of my generation I came to know of the delightful inhabitants of Moominvalley via the nineties cartoon. I didn’t read the wonderful Tove Jansson books until I was in secondary school, and was enchanted all over again by the free-spirited Moomin family and their decidedly bohemian friends. A lot of the stories are overlain with melancholy, and the whimsical tales often carry a lot of depth or wisdom.

This particular fabric depicts the Moomins in the jungle or on safari (just like me!) and therefore combines two of my favourite things: Moomins and animals! Rather than a repeated print the full length fabric was like a mini tableau, featuring Little My commandeering a rhino, Moomintroll and Snorkmaiden climbing with the monkeys, Moominpappa dozing in a hammock above some tigers and Moominmamma calmly watering her pumpkins in between the chaos.

I’m holding my Moomin egg timer in these photos which is one of my most treasured possessions. I’m not from a very close family and we are all terrible at gift-giving (James says I’m just hard to buy gifts for, in which case I take after my Dad) but my Mum bought me this last Christmas and it’s one of the best presents I’ve ever had! I like to use egg timers when I’m practising to divide my time between different pieces.

I followed my usual skirt pattern (first seen here) and for this particular skirt I also engaged in some pretty rash pattern cutting decisions in a vague attempt to preserve certain characters. I sewed it by hand as I don’t have a sewing machine. Whilst this may have resulted in some untidy stitching (which would never have been allowed to see a shop floor) I don’t mind too much, as how many other people have a Moomin safari skirt?

Casela

James and the Giant Tortoise (caption of the century)
We spent our last afternoon in Mauritius at Casela Nature & Leisure Park. I have very conflicting feelings about animals being kept in captivity.  Whilst breeding programmes and the opportunity to study endangered species can be good, captivity is stressful for the animals and can cause all kinds of medical problems: particularly animals originally from hotter or colder environments. However, how can zoos afford to run conservation programmes without funding from ticket sales? Additionally some zoos provide shelter for rehabilitated animals who have left horrific lives performing in shows and have no chance of readjusting to the wild.

Though very few of the animals we saw at Casela are indigenous to Mauritius, the climate and habitat are identical to their home environment and they have a lot of space where natural activities (digging, burrowing etc) are encouraged unlike in some zoos. On safari (pictures below) we saw so many animals including a baby ostrich. The first tortoise we met had hijacked the food laid out for the ostriches; you can see them watching him confusedly but he seemed pretty happy! Bonus animals were the incredibly shy black pigs; they’re very endangered due to wild boar consumption.

In the nature park (pictures above) there were many species of bird wandering around free of cages. James and I shared a tender moment with the beautiful giant tortoises who are now endangered; when I first visited Mauritius at the age of 18 months these animals were still native and we have numerous photos of me playing with them, so it was bittersweet to see them. We also saw a tiny baby macaque (about the size of my hand) being cuddled and passed around the elders and the adorable lovebirds huddled together. My favourite new friend was this lemur. I scratched her back through the railings and she immediately turned round and spread herself out to be stroked, just like a cat.

What are your thoughts on animals in captivity?