Big Cat Rescue Sponsors Ikeler4000

It is our pleasure to have Big Cat Rescue join in our group of sponsors for the Ikeler4000 Round The World Record Setting Flight. Located in Florida, Big Cat Rescue started out as a sanctuary for abandoned exotic cats who people had bought as kittens and thought they would make into unusual pets. As the public soon finds out though, many big cats are not suitable as pets and need to be kept in a sanctuary. This is where Big Cat Rescue comes in to help. They take in these big cats and take care of them and give them a good home.

I have been to South Africa on one of the speaking tours that I did quarterly, around the world, for four years, from 1998 to 2002. During our visit to South Africa, we visited Kruger Park, one of the largest open game preserves still in existence. If not for these large parks in Africa, most of the large animal species would be gone. Big Cat Rescue also provides private ownership of these exotic cats to create a "preserving the species" effort as well. Private "farms" for cheetahs and lions also exist in South Africa for the same purpose of privately preserving these species.

While in South Africa we stayed in a Safari Camp and had monkeys on the roof top of our "Roundavel" that was our cement walled cabin in the camp. We had elephants and lions roaming through our camp and we had to be careful when coming out in the morning not to open the door to face a wild animal at breakfast.

During our first afternoon at the safari camp, my wife then and I went for a stroll down by the river and saw fascinating elephant footprints, lion foot prints, and what must have been wildebeest foot prints. We sauntered along joyously until we got back to the camp and it's owner found out where we had been. After a severe warning, that was also given to our conference group, we knew not to walk along the river again.

At night, the tour guides took us out into the preserve and pointed out, with a spot light, unusual species that you can only see at night. Those were fun times, though a little scary. Especially one time when we came across a group of Rhinos that were being aggressive toward our jeep. They wouldn't let us pass, and they bounced around like they were made of rubber to show us their strength. We just waited them out, and after about fifteen minutes, they moved on.

From my experience with wildlife I know the challenges Big Cat Rescue has ahead of them. We support their efforts and wish them the best in the years to come. You can visit their site and make a donation to support their on going work at http://www.bigcatrescue.com/

Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.ikeler4000.com/

http://www.ikeleraerospace.blogspot.com/