Feeding Miss Daisy: A Nairobi Valentine’s Date

While most people spend their Valentine’s Day with their spouse, lover, partner, or other loved ones: going out on dates, doing cute things etc (visions of rose petals and flowers and candies and feeding grapes to a loved one and all of those other force-fed romantic images that have been created come to mind). I can say I actually did have a lunch date on Valentine’s Day as well…with a very cute seventeen year old female named Daisy… a giant Rothschild giraffe.

I spent my Saturday afternoon at the Giraffe Center, which is located in an area about an hour outside of Nairobi near Nairobi National Park where many different wildlife refuge and research centers are. The one that we went to was for the research and preservation of Giraffes, (warthogs and antelopes or impalas I’m not sure which also call the area home). When I first walked through the gate into the Giraffe Center, I was first saw a fenced off area and some warthogs running around inside. After saying hello to Pumba, my eyes followed the round fence around to a giant wooden platform and then saw a gigantic giraffe. My first thoughts were “Jesus, is that thing real, its huge!!). There is something about seeing giraffes that just puts a smile to your face. They are very cute, funny to watch as they move, have a certain regal air to them, and are just all and all really really cool. Being able to stand essentially right underneath of a giraffe makes you realize how big they actually are (I believe they are the tallest animal in the world). The Giraffe center has a platform that you can climb up, and walking up the steps there are workers with buckets of pellets who give you a handful to feed the giraffes. There were many little kids around who were feeding the giraffes and jumping up and down in excitement with smiles on their face and voices of laughter. When it was my turn to feed Daisy (the grandmother and oldest of the giraffes at the center), I held these large pellets (that reminded me of a much larger version of the food that my old pet rabbit Ferris used to eat) in my fingertips, and Daisy moved her head out and just licked it out of my hand with her very long tongue. She opened her mouth for more food and I could just throw pellets in for her.

From the viewing platform, you could see many Giraffes roaming around in this wildlife refuge. I believe that there were around ten or so there. At one point three different giraffes made their way to the viewing/feeding platform, including one smaller child giraffe. The Giraffe Center has Rothschild giraffes of all different ages and sizes, as well as warthogs roaming around. It was one of the first times while being in Africa that I truly felt like I had interaction with wildlife and felt like I was in the Lion King (which takes place in Kenya). My interaction or viewing of African wildlife has limited as of now, but that will change. On our drive to Naivasha the first week, we saw a herd of zebras running along the plains of the Rift Valley, and driving back from one of our exchanges we saw a group of small monkeys crawling around, but other than that I have not had too much contact with animals; just the agricultural herds of cattle or goats. Going to the Giraffe Center made me motivated to go see more of the wildlife in Kenya; I am planning on taking a Safari over the Easter break weekend when I have a few days off from classes, and there are other wildlife sanctuaries around Nairobi and Nairobi National Park to see as well. Stay tuned for more animal sightings in the future.