Sponsorship

Dear Fellow Conservationist

Thank you for your interest in helping us with the research, educational and conservation work that we do.  Generally people are surprised to find out that the Khamai Reptile Centre initiates and gets involved with numerous research, educational and conservation projects yearly. Projects are mostly self financed using a limited budget to buy equipment and to manage activities. Any outside contributions are greatly appreciated and will be utilised best way possible to help the animals.

The advantage of a donation to the centre is that we have no outside partners this means that all proceeds stay within the centre and are directly utilised for the benefit of the animals and have no profit making value. The Khamai Reptile Centre does not buy nor do we sell animals. We have a "Khamai Reptile Friends" wall that reflects all contributors that have helped us with reptile conservation. This is situated in a prominent area of the park for all visitors to see that some people do care. This type of green advertising is seen by the public as sincere honest advertising and draws the attention of good customers for your organisation.

Following is a brief description of projects that we are currently working on and are desperately in need of help, please read through this and let me know should you need any more detailed information.

Please do not feel intimidated by the cost of what we need, any contribution will help no matter how small.

Yours in Conservation

Donald Strydom

…. Is it only after we have poisoned all the air that we breath, polluted all of our water and taken out the last tree that we will realise we cannot eat money ….

 NEEDY PROJECTS

• Golden Brown Baboon Spider Relocation Project 
• Capture Release / Quarentine Facility
• Python Habitat
• Reptile Rescue Vehicle
• Tropical House

Please contact us should you need details about our needy projects.

 Following is a brief overview of some of our priority projects:

1.    Golden Brown Baboon Spider Relocation Project - Hoedspruit, the prime habitat in South Africa for these beautiful spiders is going through a period of rapid development and as with many animals throughout the World habitat depletion is affecting them in a serious way.

The Golden Brown Baboon Spider lives in a hole in the ground that takes them between 5 to 7 years to excavate into an adequate home. Thereafter the sub adult spider looses its instinct and mechanism for digging holes. As a result we cannot just move the spider to another location as it will die for lack of protection, it simply does not know how to dig another hole for itself.

The Khamai Reptile Centre steps in should a development take place over spider holes. With permission from the developers we remove all spiders within the footprint of each development so saving them from certain death and keep them safely in captivity. This gives us the opportunity to do valuable aggressive research of its habitat so as to try copy and create a new livable hole for each spider removed.

To do this we need equipment that costs money …. Following is a wish list of the equipment we still need for this project:

• Probe thermometer – To measure temperature within the core of a spiders hole without disturbing the animal.  R2000-00
• Endo Scope – This is one of our most important needs and will give us a view of the spider in its hole and allow for us to photograph the spider.  R6000-00
• Holding Bins – Polycarbonate bins to temporarily house spiders until release back into the newly created habitat. (per bin we need at least 20 bins)  R100-00
• Molding Foam – Used every time a spider has to be removed from its hole. We take a mold of the hole to keep an accurate record of each shape (per canister)  R100-00

2.    Quarentine Facility / Capture Release Program – The centre currently captures and releases between 200 -250 animals a year. We are in desperate need of a separate quarantine facility equipped to house animals safely and comfortably until release. All staff at the centre are working towards getting this project off the ground and are fundraising wherever possible. This is a costly project and any contribution however small will help (total cost)  R500 000-00

3.   Python Habitat – We adopted five Python recently that needs a special tropical habitat. The owner was not able to look after the snakes any more and they were destined to be euthanized. Unfortunately we cannot release them as they are from South East Asia and were born here in South Africa. The centre is located in the ideal climate zone for the animals to live but do not have an adequate permanent enclosure and now have to come up with a plan. A large hardware store is helping us with some of the items we need to build the enclosure but we are going to be short on stock that they do not keep in store. (outstanding items cost)  R30 000-00

4.     Wish List:

• Broadcast Quality DV Camera
• Printing – Information booklets, Posters, Flyers
• Paint – Latex water based, all colours
• Chemicals – F10 disinfectant, chlorine
• Medicines – Frontline, Flagyl, Panacure
• Scalpals 
• Latex Gloves
• Surgical Equipment – Forceps, Probes, Scissors
• Syringes – Insulin 1ml and .5ml, 10ml, 20ml
• Steel Shelving
• Glass – Laminated shatter proof.