safarimama

I posted this under another thread: Kennedy explained the "Cheetah Hug" to me like this. It's not a KWS sanctioned activity, OK. He's able to arrange it, but when there are officials in the park, they have to be discreet about it. It's not illegal. Kennedy doesn't have the keys to the enclosures. He's always met by the keepers who have the keys and they let us in. But it's also not a featured activity at the park. We're walking a fine line, but so far Kennedy has never been refused entry for us. So, when the coast is clear you get to hug the girls out in the open at the orphanage. When there's official activity in the park, they take you to hug Mr. Nice in the back enclosure of the Safari Walk. He doesn't live in this little fenced in space with a concrete table, but in a huge enclosure with his girl friend of many years, Mailu. Mr. Nice comes into this enclosure just to be petted by you (for a tip/fee/bribe to the keepers), which has been arranged by Kennedy in advance. Kennedy never knows which enclosure you will be assigned to as it depends on the activity in the park when you arrive. Hence the confusion. The girls are in the orphanage and Mr. Nice in the Safari Walk. They all have a decent enclosure spacewise, but cheetahs need a lot of open space to hunt; these cheetahs don't need to hunt for food. I'm not judging this either way.

joeyi

I just found this today so I thought I’d throw in my 2 cents for what it’s worth. When we went to the animal orphanage at Nairobi NP we didn’t ask if the cheetah hug was allowed. We just asked the young man at the gate if we could go in and pet the cheetah. First it seemed like he said “no” but then he glanced over to 3 other keepers that were standing across the way and they came right over with the keys and let us all in (my husband, myself, sister & brother-in-law and nephew).

Rod still tells the story how after they let us in they lock the gate behind you and you’re locked in the enclosure with 3 live cheetahs. I was so excited to pet the cheetahs I didn’t even notice we were locked in.

One of the keepers took my camera and started taking pictures of us petting the cheetah. The first cheetah was eating a bone so he moved us over to another cheetah that wasn’t so pre-occupied.

The men were very nice, and I stress no ever asked for any money and it did not seem like we were breaking any rules. I did give the cameraman some shillings but I do not even remember how much any more. I will say the orphanage is kind of a very sad zoo and we did not stay long. I did go back to look at the cheetahs before we left and a man with his child asked if he could go in and they took him in. they were not with a guide, they looked local.

I will also add that when my sister in law took my nephew last year (after they first moved to Nairobi) at that time they had a photographer that would take your picture and you could buy it or they would use your own camera an take your picture.

Patty

I noticed the recent NYT article made reference to this http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/03/18...18hours.1.html