Anne Rasa lived on the cattle farm she bought since 2000. With help she rehabilitated the dunes and the velt.
She has taken on many studies, amongst others mongoose behaviour and aggression of fish behaviours in various parts of the world, amongst those in Kenia and Hawaii.
According to someone that knew her closely, she became allegic to white rats and had to change her studies to mongoose bahaviour.
She was a well educated lady with a few university degrees. She also had a Ph.D from London University. She also served as a professor in many European Universities. She was also a lecturor at Pretoria University. She brought many students to the Kgalagadi doing studies on insects, amongst others.
At the now Meerkat Sanctuary she became friends with one of the last true bushmen in the area, called Vet Piet. Vet Piet and Anne exchanged their knowledge with each other.
I read in the book "History of the Kgalagadi National Park" (pg76) that a person by the name of Vetpiet Kruiper (also known as Karel Kleinman) was a tracker to Joep le Riche and later Joep's son, Elias le Riche. I assume it is the same person that later got to know Anne.
It seems that the word Piet was a frequently used name. The name Piet Bok, who later also became known as Piet Natgooi, is an example of this, as described in the book "Africa the legends live on"
Roughly 300+ meerkats have been rehabilitated over the years. Here they are treated, some with broken legs, untill they are healty enough and one day, simply go they own way into the dunes.
Currently there are a pack of meerkats that comes and visit the main lodge daily for a snack. A good time to be at the main lodge is around 4pm, when they get their treat for the day.
Richard, her son, has now taken over the sanctuary since Anne passed away in November 2020.
Richard himself led an interesting life thus far. Amongst others he was a film studio manager and was involved in the productions of films such as Jurassic Park, Sherlok Holmes and Harry Potter movies. He moved to the farm when his mother fell ill.
This is "Biltong", a fairly tame wildebeest. The story goes that he better behave, or else ......
