Archive for January 17th, 2001
Day 14
We had a good morning in the butchery day, finishing before 9am. We began our feeding of the animals as usual, until Juliet spotted a pile of feathers in one of the camps (everyone I have met here has such a good eye for spotting tiny details like that in the natural landscape, things I would walk right past - I guess because I am used to a simple, tidy urban landscape).
It turned out to be the remains of a blue crane, one of the endangered species here. At first a worker was suspected because of nearby footprints (although I found this strange - why would a worker do this? Not for food, surely?), but on finding the main carcass nearby it was clearly the work of a predator. Tyse confirmed later that it was a jackal who had sneaked through a tiny hole in the fence.
Later we had a problem finding one of the servals (a small, cheetah-looking wild cat) in one of the enclosures - she was so well hidden in the undergrowth. Its amazing how those spots on cheetahs, servals, leopards and the like are actually excellent at breaking up the lines of an animal and helping them to blend into the background. Elise didn’t see the serval until she was right next to it!
Our next problem was a piece of meat, which we usually sling over the 4 meter fence of the wild dog enclosure, got stuck on the top of the fencing. This was solved with a couple of long sticks and a lot of patience. Despite this, we were finished the rounds at 11:30.
The rest of the afternoon was a series of missions with the doc. We had a very sick cheetah with renal failure and liver problems - the doc showed me the results of a blood test, and told me the normal, healthy range for various readings - most of the readings were quite seriously beyond the normal limits, which meant it was quite serious.
After darting and heaving him onto the table, the doc set up a couple of detox drips (one subcutaneous, one intravenous). He also got a whole cocktail of other drugs injected or fed through the drip - the doc even let me do a couple of the injections through the drip, which was cool!
We broke for lunch before tackling the next cheetah, the one which needed its bandage changing.
Our next mission was to go to another game reserve where a giraffe had been killed, presumably by making contact with overhead power lines, because the body was found right under them. It was quite a horrific sight (and smell), but sure enough it didn’t take the doc long to confirm it had died from electricity in the power lines - there were fresh scorch marks on the hooves and burnt hair on the legs,where the electricity had earthed itself into the ground through the giraffe. Apparently, the height of the power lines should be a minimum height if they go through giraffe territory - but the power companies rarely live up to this ideal.
Today gave me a glimpse into the life of a wildlife vet - it must be incredibly exhausting!