FRESHLY returned from the African savannah, two dale residents are keen to raise cash to help continue the work of conservationists looking after endangered animals.
Friends Yvonne Wilkinson, of Lynesack, and Samantha Whitehead, of Boldron, have just spent two weeks in South Africa as part of a volunteer conservation project to help critically endangered species including black rhinoceros, African wild dogs and cheetahs.
“It was such an amazing experience,” Ms Wilkinson said. “We track and monitored wildlife using telemetry and spoor. We recorded animal behaviour and health.”
The duo, who were rewarded with the trip to see where funds they had previously raised was being spent, tracked and identified elephant bulls and helped with the releasing of a cheetah back into the wild. But it was an invitation to the Zululand Rhino Orphanage which has inspired their latest fundraising effort.
Over the past few years a poaching crisis in South Africa has devastated the rhino population with many slaughtered for their horn.
Many female rhinos are slaughtered in front of their calves and if the calves aren’t killed they need to be helped recover from the trauma and are cared for at the orphanage, Ms Wilkinson said.
“The calves are released back into the wild,” she added. “But in the meantime they do need a lot of care. Rhino babies drink several gallons of milk a day and need constant care, which is expensive.”
Ms Wilkinson runs the Little Owl Lodge, a luxury holiday accommodation complex in Lynesack, and is offering a two-night stay at the lodge for up to four people in a prize draw. The draw will take place on July 1.
Entrants must be over 18 and minimum donation for the draw is £5 and can be made via their Just Giving page www.justgiving.com/fundraising/yvonne-wilkinson2. Entries can be sent via the Little Owl Lodge Facebook page.
Money raised will go to the good cause.
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
