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Capturing rhino!

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 15:19:19 +0100

Woke up at 5.30 am, very excited about what we would be doing today. We then headed off to meet Brett the rhino man. When we arrived at the meeting we prepared enough drugs to knockdown 3 juvenile rhino. We had the safety briefing and then we were asked who wanted to go in the chopper first. Of course I volunteered along with Judi.

We drove out to the chopper, Judi went in the front and I was behind her next to Brad. We had a brief safety talk from the pilot and then took off. It was absolutely amazing and I was lost for words. We flew around for a while and saw 5 rhino with babies. We got closer and selected the baby to dart. We flew over them to try and move them to a more accessible area and Brad aimed and fired-it bounced off. He then lined up again and got the dart into the rhino’s tail. We followed it until it went down and then our pilot chased off the mother. We then landed to help on foot.

Judi was out first and I followed. She was with Will and I saw them run. I thought I’d better run too. When I got close I heard Will say ‘FOLLOW ME QUICKLY’. I did not need telling twice. The helicopter had taken off again because the mum was hurtling back to us at 35kph!!! The helicopter chased her off and we then went to the baby to do our job.

We all took a procedure and this worked really well. Some were helping with ear notching. Will took the dart out, and a microchip was inserted into the Scruff. A hole was drilled using a Black & Decker drill into the large horn and a tracking GPS was inserted. The horn was sawed off for testing to determine exactly where the animal was from and the pieces of ear were sent for DNA testing. He was then reversed and was watched until he got up.

The next one that was darted ended up half in a bush. We managed to drag him out once we had finished with him and he was reversed he did a mini charge at us. It was really cute and not at all scary. We then headed back to the lodge, had lunch and then had an excellent talk from Brad on Rhino’s.

The first waterbuck!

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:18:20 +0100

Up at 4.30 am-Aaaagh! We set off to move the waterbuck. Will was in the chopper and we waited on the road for the nod. Louise and Hayley were on the transport to reverse the anaesthetics’ once loaded.

Within a few minutes Will had darted the first waterbuck, we raced over and jumped down to blindfold, earplug, check heart rate and respiratory rate and then loaded her straight onto the truck as it was very close. All went really well, she was loaded and reversed within a few minutes. Will then darted another and Nicky and Sophie were off. Their one decided to fall on a hill and they needed all the help they could get to load her onto the small truck to take back to the transporter. We then had the nod another had been darted we charged off to that one. Again she was fine.

A while passed and news came that Will had darted a large male: it was Nicky and Sophie’s turn but he had fallen wrapped round a tree. It took a lot to move him but we managed to load him ok. Louise was really worried that one of the females was really stressed and she tried to jump through a small window to escape and hurt herself. All four of them went off to their new home. We then had to walk the land up and down to try and flush out the remaining animals for Will to dart but we couldn’t find them. We decided to try our luck with the remaining animals in the morning.

In the afternoon we drove to a penguin rehab centre. The lady was extremely knowledgeable and we met all of the birds. They were so cute. We have adopted the newest arrival and named him Charlie.

Blesbok!

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:16:50 +0100

Woke up at 6.30am and really excited but apprehensive at the same time. The journey to meet Will was freezing, there was thick fog and we were in the open landrover. As we drove further into the hills the mist started to clear and as you looked back it was stunning, thick fog hanging in the valley and bright sunshine where we were, amazing.

We meet Will with our calculations and it was decided that Judi and I would go first. We had to knock down a blesbok and they had to be males as the ratio between male and female was too high. We snuck up on the blesbok and Will darted a male. We then had to jump off the truck, blindfold and ear plug him. Checked his heart rate, respiratory rate, and temperature. All was ok, so we loaded him onto the trailer and Will went off to dart another as the group was still together.

While Will was doing this, our boy got hot and we had to cover him with water to cool him ASAP. His heart rate was low as was his respiratory rate and we had to lighten his anaesthetic a bit as he was too deep. We then started the journey to the lion reserve. Our boy started to bloat slightly so an 18g needle was used to deflate him and we continued to take his heart rate and respiratory rate, which had stabilised by now. When we arrived at the lion enclosure we unloaded our boy and I then had to reverse him by IV marginal ear vein, I managed to find the vein and injected the reversal. He woke very well and scampered off after looking at all with disgust.

We then found the lioness hiding under the circle bush and Will darted her with Lutalyse to abort her pregnancy. Once we had done this we headed back across the reserve to attend some more lectures and look at our doses for moving some Waterbuck tomorrow.

Lectures

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 15:15:45 +0100

We were up at 7.30 am for breakfast and then headed to a river for a boat cruise. We saw elephants, wildebeest, waterhogs and numerous antelope and buffalo. We had to go through the river crossing at the other side of the reserve and ‘Diggerboy’ (the dominant bull buffalo) was lying at the side of the road chewing the cud. We did not think we would get passed but he was being a good boy.

The boat trip was really relaxing and we saw numerous birds including malachite kingfisher, weaver birds, white fronted cormorant and darter. Once over the other side we had a pharmacology lecture going through all the knockout drugs and tranquilizers we needed.

At the end of the Lecture we found out what we would be doing tomorrow….. We will be darting and transporting male blesbok and black wildebeest over to the lion enclosure, but we will be doing the whole thing ourselves!!!! Gasps, looks of horror and lots of nervous giggles ensued.

We now had to go and work out the drugs needed ready for tomorrow. We were all amazingly excited but nervous as well. I am sure it will be fine.

Once we had worked out the doses, we headed out for a late afternoon/evening drive. While still light we saw four giraffe in the distance, Norman, the dominant bull, giraffe was amazing, and it was amazing just being able to watch him. It then started to get dark and we headed back across the reserve. Can’t wait until tomorrow.

Early bird day

Sun, 9 Sep 2007 15:14:04 +0100

Woke up at 7.30.am just before the alarm! Slept really well, breakfast was excellent a wide range of whatever you fancied including a South African speciality-maize porridge. This was delicious. At 9.30am we went on a 1.5 mile bush walk and Julie (our VN ranger) told us about the plants and trees and their historical uses. Very informative and interesting but don’t ask me the names of the plants, a few more days of asking what they are before I will remember. There are amazing licheans and these are called Old Man’s beard that can be used as toilet paper.

We also saw a South African fish eagle, Marshall Eagle, lots of birds too numerous to mention and remember. Along with impala and black wildebeest or whitetail gnu-amazing!!! And all on our first day. We also saw a milweed locust (have photo) but kept our distance as they excrete a cardiotoxin.

We had 2 lectures from Will on the history of conservation. They were really interesting and Will evidently has a great passion about what he does. At 1.15 pm went for lunch and again Brett surpassed himself. BBQ meats, salad and fruit. I’m getting addicted to the thin sausages, absolutely delicious. After lunch we are going on our first game drive.

Got back from the game drive at about 6.15pm: wow what an experience. We went through the gate into the Amakhala reserve and within 15 mins we saw our first elephant, we then spotted another. We were hoping to find the whole family as they have been very elusive due to them having a baby that was born in April and a new addition that was born in June/July. We managed to find the whole family including the tiny baby with his little hairy head. Julie our ranger had not seem him before either. He was amazing, so cute and didn’t really have full control of his legs or his trunk. The family was really laidback to start with so we carried on watching for awhile, the little chap was mimicking his mum.

We then followed the road round and met Norman the dominant bull, we also saw Macaulay. The females and babes continued to eat until we tried to drive pass. One cow saw us off with a fake charge-lots of ear flapping and stomping so we stopped to watch rather than aggravate her further. She after all was only protecting the babes and was very close to the landrover.

We then zoomed along and spotted a male rhino along with a female and her 18 month old babe. It started to get dark so we headed back for dinner, but on the way back we bumped into a rhino female and her Juvenile we stopped and watched them for a while. Also on the road was a bull giraffe, he has not been seen on that side of the reserve all winter so seeing him was a sure sign that spring and summer are on the way.

What a day-or two!

Fri, 7 Sep 2007 14:14:23 +0100

What a day-or two!! We all arrived at the airport, checked in and then went shopping for them last minute bits. We boarded and eleven hours later we arrived in Johannesburg.

We booked our bags back in for connecting flight to Port Elizabeth, 14.10 came and we boarded our connecting flight which took one and half hours. We disembarked and all waited patiently for our bags. Will (the vet) picks us up and we head for the reserve.

We all then had a briefing going through safety conduct and our draft itinerary-amazing I’ll tell you about that tomorrow. Had a barbecue cooked by Brett for dinner, amazing carnivorous grub, had a couple of drinks and then had to find a bucket or two to put the fires out

Off to bed now-leaving Louise filming a ‘Blair Witch’ style video diary. See you tomorrow, breakfast at 8am, then a game walk followed by lectures. We will be involved in trapping and sampling 8-9 Black Rhino in a few days, Wow.