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Sept. 11-17, 2020
ASTORIA NATIVE WORKS ON
WILDLIFE RESERVES IN AFRICA
BY JENNA BAGCAL
Looking back at her childhood,
Sonia Perry knew that
she wanted to work with animals.
Growing up, the Astoria
resident discovered her deep
passion for them through
watching the late Steve Irwin
work with majestic creatures.
His “courageous” nature inspired
her to try pursuing a
similar career when she got
older.
On the weekends, Perry
and her father would frequent
Queens County Farm, where
they spent hours “admiring
and interacting” with animals.
She would also watch
educational programs on the
History Channel, the Discovery
Channel and Wildlife
Planet.
“I realized there was something
special about animals.
I couldn’t really own pets at
the time so being able to have
that opportunity every weekend
was amazing,” Perry said.
Thus began her journey to
working wild animals at African
reserves. As she continued
learning about animals, Perry
began to realize how many of
them actually lived in captivity
as opposed to being able to
Photo courtesy of Sonia Perry
wander freely.
“It shattered my heart into
pieces. I knew I had a calling to
raise awareness to people all
over the world on how crucial
wildlife are,” she recalled.
Perry’s father died in 2017,
which she described as a “tumultuous”
time in her life. But
she decided to turn her pain
into a chance to follow her lifelong
passion to Africa. After
some research, she reached
out to people about “hands-on
opportunities” she could take
part in.
“That’s how I found Zimbabwe.
They had a private reserve
which was about 10,000
hectares of land and I thought,
‘wow, I’m going to be living
without light and warm water
for a really long time. I’ll be
living like I’m on Gilligan’s Island.’
But it was so worth it,”
said Perry.
So she hopped on a plane
and set out for Zimbabwe,
where she would spend the
next eight months working on
reserves, cleaning enclosures
and shadowing caregivers
who devoted their lives to protecting
endangered creatures
including lions, cheetahs, hyenas,
zebras and African wild
dogs.
“Working with animals
and going into an enclosure,
you really don’t know what to
expect. It really is an adrenaline
rush. Maybe one day that
lion or that elephant I’m working
with is grumpy; I don’t
know how he will react. Every
day is a new challenge and it’s
full of surprises, which you
kind of really don’t get by just
working every day and doing
the same routine. I love that.
I love that experience where
you get different surprises every
day,” said Perry.
Following her eight months
in Zimbabwe, Perry traveled
to South Africa from 2018 to
2019 to do similar work with
animals.
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Vol. 8, No. 37 36 total pages
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