http://edgeofafrica.com/news/blog/My third week on the Big 5 Wildlife Project
Another week has gone by ever so quickly here on the reserve, filled with exciting stuff that has happened and the necessary labour. We started the week by working on the buffalo boma we’re building next to the house. This is where the buffalo will stay for a period of 6-8 weeks before the two bulls get sold, to test for TB. The plan is to get it done by next Friday, but it looks like that’s wishful thinking! Furthermore, we have checked all the fences for holes because we were planning on releasing cheetah this week, any and all holes we found have now been closed with rocks. I’ve also had the privilege of learning how to drive a tractor when Hein and I were reconstructing a road down in the reserve, and I must say it looks easier than it actually is, it’s definitely the weirdest thing I’ll ever drive...!
Over the weekend there had been a bad case of rhino poaching in the Western Cape (only three hours away!), where all the rhino’s on a farm have been poached within two nights, absolutely outrageous and horrible that people can do something like that! This has us quite worried about the rhino’s on the reserve and as such we have been checking up on them every morning, sometimes till late in the afternoon since they’re very capable of hiding. Luckily, all three of them all still doing great!
Then we arranged for the wildlife vet to come visit us on the Wednesday, because there were some things going on with the animals. First of all, we wanted to move a zebra stallion into the reserve with the ladies to go do his business, so the vet darted the dominant stallion of the four zebra. We then moved him into the reserve where I was allowed to administer the antidote IV, which was totally awesome!
After that we had the buffalo cow darted to check up on her red eye, which turned out to be conjunctivitis. The wildlife vet took care of that with some antibiotics and painkillers. We also had him look for signs of pregnancy and we learned that she is around 9 months pregnant, so that’s great news!
Next up was the release of the cheetahs, Bobby and Victor, two inseparable brothers. The vet darted them as well and we then collared them so that we can keep track of their location, average speed, temperature etc. Then we moved them into the reserve and once again I got to wake them up with the antidote IM, so very cool indeed! Because they seemed to be waking up rather slowly and were still quite groggy, we decided to stay with them the rest of the day to make sure they would be all right. Now they are doing great, are starting to get more active by the minute (making the springbok go crazy) and we’re anticipating their first kill out in the reserve this week!
Furthermore, we dug up a cheetah skeleton that was buried around about two years ago after that cheetah had died a natural death (old age). So I have also been very busy working on that skeleton as it is now my job to put it together for the conservation centre. It is very interesting to do, but not really that easy seeing as how there are lots and lots of tiny little bones! I’ll be sure to put pictures up when (if) it’s done...
The last veterinary experience I got this week was when we heard about the baby gray rhebok that was just lying down all the time and seemed to have a torn lip. Hein and I immediately drove there and checked the baby out. She was absolutely covered in ticks and her lip was indeed torn up, she was in bad shape and couldn’t even stand up anymore! So we decided to bring her back to the house where I put her on the table to have a better look at her. We then gave her painkillers and antibiotics and took out a lot of the ticks (especially the bigger ones) and then sprayed the rest of them. I was getting ready to stitch up her little lip after cleaning it thoroughly, when we suddenly saw her jawbone sticking out of her mouth! Unfortunately, she didn’t make it!
All in all, it has been a very exciting week! My first week without my fellow volunteers Hanna and Alma (miss you guys!), but luckily Hein, Kim and cutiepie Malan are still here, still very caring and welcoming towards me, so that’s great.
Being a veterinary student, I just loved the fact that I got to do a lot of veterinary work! But, even though we got a lot of stuff done, the list of things that still need to be done is even longer so I’m looking forward to next week!
Elise van der Heijden
Netherlands
EDGE of AFRICA Volunteer
November 2010
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