On Tuesday, 1 May 2012, Cango Wildlife Ranch received a much-anticipated visit from Alan Winde, the Minister of Tourism, Western Cape. Minister Winde and his family stayed in Knysna over the long weekend, and secretly revealed that they planned their trip around meeting Harry! We welcomed the press and the family around11am and took them on a tour of the ranch, and of course to meet Harry’s parents Hilda and Herbert. We later escorted everyone to Harry’s home at our hand-rearing facility and introduced them to our little Prince. Everyone patiently waited in the garden as Harry’s care-giver, Toni Inggs brought him out. Our little Prince posed proudly for the cameras and took quite a shining to our Minister Winde. When asked what he thought of Harry, the Minister proudly said, “Well he is obviously very cute…but I think that Harry has come to Oudtshoorn at the right time. I think he is really helping Oudtshoorn as far as the negativity surrounding the ostrich problem, and with the drop-off of the economy…so he is a bit of an economic saviour, and at the same time he is also saving his species. So it is sort off a coming-together of all the right elements that makes him such big hero!”
After sharing their hippo encounter with the press, the family was transported back to the ranch where they met our other ambassador animals. They bottle fed our white Bengal Tigers, and enjoyed some time with our lovely ring-tailed lemurs.
Mr Andrew Eriksen, owner of Cango Wildlife Ranch proudly hosted the family and welcomes them back in the near future!
If you require any further information, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Please give the ranch credit for the information and photo’s. Stay tuned to etv tomorrow to see the filming.
