Supporting

Freeme Wildlife

We believe that Africa’s diverse and unique wildlife is worth protecting. What we take for granted living on this amazing continent can only be full appreciated when you are no longer able to experience it. Traveling the world or imigrating to another continent, as a South African, one of the first things you will long for is the sights and sounds of the African bush.

Preserving this Africa, Our Africa, is the responsibility of every citizen and business. That why we are involved with organisations like FreeMe Wildlife and others.

We have, so far contributed to two of their larger projects:

tortoise enclosures

For this project we were able to sponsor the Vista Mesh fencing for tortoise enclosures.

These enclosures form part of the tortoise project which aims to return tortoises, often confiscated from the illegal pet trade, back into the wild legally, ethically, and responsibly.

The tortoises have to be separated by species, size, and sex, and new tortoises have to be quarantined until health and genetic tests have been concluded and they are declared fit for return to their genetic point of origin.

The Vista Mesh fencing is robust and safe and makes the perfect fencing type for tortoises. It has improved holding capacity and enclosure standards for the tortoises FreeMe has in care.

Continuous Flight Aerodrome

The second project SMP supported was the construction of a continuous flight aerodrome for the rehabilitation of large birds of prey.

For this project we provided the steel struts to support the domed section of the FreeMe Wildlife aerodrome.

This continuous flight tunnel for birds of prey and other large bird species such as cranes is the largest of its kind in the world, and is presently only one of three such structures globally.

The importance of the steel struts allowed for an extra 1.5m of height above the planked walls, giving birds more space for flight, and the curved design, covered in shade cloth, prevents the birds trying to fly up towards the sky, or hang off the roof; both behaviours result in injury in more open roofed structures.

The aerodrome has already accommodated several endangered bird species. We are thrilled to have contributed to the rehabilitation and conservation of endangered bird species through our involvement in the construction of the aerodrome.