Dana Atkinson
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Wild Signs

You see the warnings time and time again not to feed the animals.  One, and I wish I had a photo, states, "You feed them, we shoot them."  If you are a first time visitor you may not know why it is so important NOT to feed the wildlife or why, if you do, the animal might have to die.  When a potentially dangerous animal begins to associate people with food, as they will do should you feed them, they become very dangerous because now you are a food source.  And when you - people - become a food source, the animals change their behavior.  For example, if you are in the wilds of Botswana and pitch a tent under a tree full of baboon who don't associate you with food you can cook, eat and enjoy your time among them with no issues.  However, in camps where people have been known to feed primates, eating in public becomes dangerous and almost impossible without monkeys coming in very agressively for a handout or to thief your food. 




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Warnings are everywhere in Africa; most advising you to beware of animals and letting you know that whatever you do you do it at your own risk!  One of the most poignant photos I have seen was at a camp near the check in desk.  Someone had taken a photo of a sign advising that you can alight at your own risk but there were animals present.  Below the sign, laying all around it on rocks, was an entire pride of lion. 

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