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00:00 I've always loved animals. When I was a kid, I found crickets. Some of them were
00:06 eating. The way they have fluffy tails and the way they eat the whole food with
00:11 both hands, it was fascinating. I was wondering, are there more animals in the
00:16 wild? That's where my passion and love for wildlife started. My name is Akelo
00:25 Holly Oliver. I'm a wildlife animal handler at the CTC Conservation Center.
00:31 A typical day for me here at the CTC Conservation Center is waking up, checking
00:47 up on the animals, then feeding those that need to be fed early morning. Every
00:53 day it's exciting because you get to learn different things. What you thought
00:59 that you've already learned about this animal will surprise you tomorrow. I'm
01:02 still excited. They become part of my life. I'll get to take care of them and
01:08 if any animal is sick, to help the vet in treating of the animals. It can be quite
01:15 challenging working with animals because they are rare. You have a precious thing
01:21 in your hands. You don't want to lose them. You don't want them to die on your
01:24 watch. The animals receive all kinds of Medicare. They get vaccinations against
01:28 all types of viruses and bacterial diseases. We have to make sure that they
01:33 have proper enrichment because these are animals that are usually in the
01:37 wild and they are now living in captivity. We make the animal enclosures
01:41 as close as that in the wild by doing a closure enrichment. Different species of
01:48 animals have different enrichment plan. There are those animals that live in the
01:55 open savannah. Zebras are in like 12 acres of land and it's open. Another
02:01 enrichment plan is through interaction. They have scratching posts by hiding
02:08 their food in places the animal moves to find it.
02:16 Our animals come from different sources. We have several rescues here like our
02:21 donkey is a rescue. He was mistreated. The animals are just licensed to us by
02:25 Uganda Wildlife Authority. The majority which are sourced in Uganda are
02:29 community problem animals where they're having reports from the community that
02:35 animals are picking their goats or their chickens. We have two very large
02:39 crocodiles. One of them was a man eater and he supposedly ate three fishermen.
02:44 Uganda Wildlife Authority captured him and asked us if we would like him.
02:49 Human wildlife conflict is happening because we find that not many people really love
02:54 the animals. The local community don't understand what is going on. In other
03:00 places a lot of poisoning is happening. You find human activities like poaching,
03:05 illegal wildlife trade. The animals that you hope to see in the wild you don't
03:11 find them anymore. The numbers of animals are decreasing day by day.
03:18 My role at CTC Conservation Center is to guide tourists, explain to them about
03:31 different things about the animals. By the time someone leaves they go back with
03:35 positive mindset towards conservation. I do work with the local communities
03:40 about the importance of wildlife conservation and also how they can
03:45 coexist. Ugandans are more involved in conservation these days and also they
03:51 are more exposed. Communities have been rescuing the animals like the pangolins
03:59 to bring here for safe custody. We hand it over to Uganda Wildlife Authority for
04:06 self relocation into suitable environment. We are trying to push for
04:11 some of our captive bred animals to be released into the parks and other
04:14 protected areas in collaboration with Uganda Wildlife Authority. Our dream
04:18 would be to expand this facility as big as possible reaching maybe 250 acres
04:23 and being a sanctuary for orphaned wildlife as well as injured wildlife and
04:29 also a head start facility for reintroduction of local species. We have
04:35 been able to successfully breed different species of wildlife for
04:40 example the African golden cat. By breeding wildlife we try to create a
04:46 sustainable environment for them where we also possibly have the opportunity to
04:51 have excess offspring which we can reintroduce back into the environment. We
04:55 of course also have to conduct a full environmental impact assessment. We don't
04:58 release something which then just will be poached again. I aspire to be exposed
05:04 to a broad set of skill that will enable me to train different people and also
05:11 inspire more people into wildlife conservation. I'm studying Bachelor of
05:17 Science in Wildlife Management and Conservation. I hope that will provide me
05:23 with the knowledge that I need to implement in my career. Some of the
05:30 future goals is carrying out research and documenting this research so that
05:36 people can easily access the information about these wild animals so that more
05:41 people are involved into conservation. We can conserve for the next generation.
05:48 Conservation is everyone's role.
05:52 [Music]