FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM SEPTEMBER 10, 2020 • BUZZ • THE QUEENS COURIER 49
From city to safari: Astoria native
works on wildlife reserves in Africa
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com
@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 onthe
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.
Th us began herjourney 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 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.Aft er some research, she
reached out to people about “hands-on
opportunities” she could take part in.
“Th at’s how I found Zimbabwe. Th ey
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 i t ’ 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 diff erent
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. In between those trips, she
also visited Kenya and Tanzania to track
and research the wildlife that are native to
those countries.
She considers herself a self-taught wildlife
behaviorist, animal photographer and
activist and has dreams to open a wildlife
reserve of her own in the future. She
shared that Zimbabwe or South Africa
would be her ideal countries to place an
animal sanctuary.
“People really put their lives in danger
just to protect these animals and I kind of
felt that I could relate because that’s something
that I’ve always wanted
to do. Th ey’re not understanding
that unscrupulous hunting
and poachers are causing animals’
numbers to decline drastically,”
Perry said.I hope to one
day fulfi ll my biggest dream by
preserving the conservation of
species and spread positivity to
the world. Th ere’s remarkable
beauty in the animal kingdom
and if animals become extinct
there won’t be anything left to
show.”
She added that she
hopes to teach
others the
l e s s o n s
s h e ’ s
learned in her work and inspire people
the way that Steve Irwin inspired her as
a child.
For those with similar aspirations to
her own, Perry said that a good place to
start researching opportunities is online
at sites like gooverseas.com or volunteerforever.
com.
“Th ere’s a lot of sanctuaries that are not
for profi t or places that are just opening
up now, so they’re just starting to get that
stability where they would need people
to come there and access. Th ere are programs
where you don’t have to pay and
they do pay you with meals and accommodations.
Th en there’s reserves where
you can volunteer and there are incentive
of getting to work hands on with
veterinarians and do some externships.
You get accommodations and meals and
tours,” she said.
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