Hello everyone,
As you can tell by the title of this post, Victoria and I
were extremely lucky this week. Monday morning, we received an emergency call
from the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Center regarding two adolescent male lions
that had escaped from their enclosure. The lions had actually torn a hole through
the fence into the buffer zone between the HESC and the Kapama game reserve.
The buffer area was also next to the public area. The situation was so critical
because the lions could tear a hole in the fence again, either escaping to
Kapama or the public area. Victoria and I were beyond excited. Not only were we
going on a high-profile rescue mission, but we were also going to get to touch (and
likely treat) lions! After today, I will have touched Africa’s Big Five: Lions,
Leopards, Buffalo, Rhino, and Elephant. The only member of the Big Five I will
have left to treat, however, is the
Elephant, and we actually have one scheduled for late next week. Few students
working with Dr. Rogers are so lucky as to treat the Big Five in such a short
period of time, so I feel very
fortunate!
When we arrived at HESC, we all hopped in the back of a
pick-up truck and drove to the area in which we believed the lions to be, where
we met up with the founder and owner of HESC, Lente Roode. I had heard about
her during my initial tour of the HESC a few weeks ago, and now I was going to
meet her! I felt so honored to meet the woman who had reversed the dismal fate
of the cheetah population. We decided on a plan of action for the day:
Victoria, Janelle, and I would join the eleven HESC student interns and two
staff members in one vehicle, and Dr. Rogers and Cristo (the head animal
curator) went into the pickup. These lions were very shy, and if we were
sitting in the back of the pick-up, then we might scare them away. In fact,
while we were still discussing our plan of action, the lions appeared close to
us, on the top of a large rock! We were all so excited that we all started
making noise and taking pictures. This, of course, scared them away
immediately. I could tell Janelle was pissed. We spent the next nine hours
trying to find the lions again.
After searching for two hours with no luck, we all started
to get frustrated. We decided to stop looking for the lions for a while and
work on something else that HESC needed done: moving eleven African Wild Dogs
from one enclosure to another. African Wild Dogs are stunning to look at. They
are about the same size as a German Sheppard, but have large round ears. Their
coat is a complicated splattering of black, white, and beige. (Click
here to see for yourself.) The African Wild Dog is also critically
endangered because farmers detest them for stealing livestock. To Africans, the
Wild Dog is a pest, so it is a battle to save them.
African Wild Dogs have a very interesting social structure,
which is the real reason why we needed to move them. A pack of Wild Dogs has an
alpha male and an alpha female, which are the only two dogs in the entire pack
that are allowed to breed. When the alpha female becomes pregnant, she secretes
pheromones that cause the other female dogs to start lactating. The alpha
female will have up to 12 puppies and allocate their care to the subordinate
females. If a subordinate female becomes pregnant, she has violated a grave
rule, and the pack will eat her puppies. In the case of the HESC Wild Dogs, one
of the subordinate females had become pregnant while in quarantine, so she was
in a separate enclosure with her puppies. Her enclosure was right next to the
pack’s current enclosure, so we needed to move the pack to that they would stop
harassing the new mother.
We darted four dogs at a time, using the tranquilizers
Ketamine and Medetomidine in the dart. Victoria, Janelle, and I traveled in the
back of the truck with the dogs to monitor their breathing. It felt incredible
to touch such a beautiful animal. When we reached the new enclosure, we injected
each dog with the Dectomax (dewormer), Lentrax (long-acting antibiotic to
prevent an abscess from the dart), and Rabisin (rabies vaccine). To reverse the
Medetomidine, we injected Yohimbin to reverse the Medetomidine. The Ketamine
wore off independently. For the dogs that did not wake up after a few minutes,
we also injected Antisedan, another reversal for the Medetomidine. All of the
dogs woke up well from the anesthetic and seemed to enjoy exploring their new
enclosure.
Throughout the day, we kept taking breaks from the Wild Dogs
to look for the lions in the buffer zone. Each time was unsuccessful. Late in
the day, we decided to try something new: we would tie a dead warthog to the
back of our vehicle and drive around to attract the lions. It was a great
idea—if we could get the lions to come out of the bush, then Dr. Rogers could
dart them. However, I suddenly realized the significance of what we were about
to do. We were going to attract lions
to our car. At this point, the ranger
driving the car said to all of us, “You ride in this vehicle at your own risk.
There is another vehicle over there if you would rather move. There is a large
chance that a lion will jump out of the bush and attack our car to get the
meat.” Holy shitake mushrooms—this was the real deal. Victoria and I decided to
stay in the car. This is why we came
to Africa.
As we drove slowly around the buffer zone, I could feel my
heart pounding in my chest. What was that book called that my mom got me for
Christmas? Oh yeah, Whatever You Do,
Don’t Run. I recalled the lessons I learned from the book and made a mental
plan just in case I encountered a lion. If the lion stays outside of the car,
stay as quiet as possible. If the car somehow tips over and you come face to
face with a lion, then act as intimidating as possible by waving your arms and
making a lot of noise. If the lion attacks, curl up in a little ball to
minimize the damage.
Nothing happened. We did not even attract the lions. We
needed a new plan. We decided to spread the warthog’s organs around the hole in
the fence and tie the warthog to a tree inside of the lion’s previous enclosure.
Maybe, just maybe, the lions would go in by themselves? We unloaded the hog and
drove around the buffer zone one more time. All of the sudden, everyone started making urgent shushing sounds. Right ahead of us were two lions, staring at us. They were
sitting where we had spread the warthog’s organs. We approached the lions in
the vehicle quietly. Dr. Rogers aimed the dart gun. When we got a little bit
closer, we stopped the vehicle. The lion was still staring straight at us.
Dr. Rogers fired the dart and we were all hopeful for a split second that we would
catch at least one of the lions tonight. However, the dart missed by a few
centimeters, and the lions dashed into the bush, not to be seen for the rest of
the night.
We looked until 7:00 p.m. At this point, we decided that we
would need to come back tomorrow. I had worked for 11 hours straight (having arrived at the clinic at 8:00 a.m.) and was exhausted. I could not wait to hit my bed, eat a huge dinner,
and call Jack to tell him about my experience.
The next morning, we left the practice at 8:00 a.m. It was a
much simpler operation since the HESC students were not there. Having the HESC
students with us yesterday was a great chance for them to gain some valuable
veterinary practical experience, especially since most of the time their work
revolves around animal care like cleaning and preparing food. However, having
so many people (11 students) also meant that Victoria and I each got less
practical experience. For example, Janelle let a vet student in the HESC group
do some of the injections, and the HESC students carried the dogs when they had
to be moved. However, Victoria and I could not help but feel a bit excited that
we were the only students that would work on the lions. We certainly felt a
little guilty that we felt this way, but the excitement certainly overpowered
the feeling that we were being selfish.
Because the lions were so shy, Dr. Rogers decided it would
be best if he and Cristo went to look for the lions, and Janelle, Victoria, and
I would come once the lions had been darted. Dr. Rogers and Cristo hung the
warthog carcass on the fence inside of the buffer area to attract the lions out
of the bush. After a few hours, Dr. Rogers actually found and darted the first
lion! We met up with Dr. Rogers and drove to the lion. The lion was lying on
the ground underneath the warthog carcass. Janelle got out of the pickup, put a
catheter in the lion’s leg, and administered Lentrax (long-acting antibiotic) subcutaneously.
Suspecting that the other lion might be curious enough to investigate
his darted friend, Dr. Rogers decided to hide in the bush to try to ambush the other
lion. We left Dr. Rogers hidden in a bush and waited for his call. I was a
little worried—if the lion became angry when he was darted, he could charge Dr.
Rogers. He had never before tried to ambush an animal like this.
According to Dr. Rogers, the other lion came to investigate
the darted lion and then picked up Dr. Rogers’s scent. The adolescent male was
very curious and walked right towards Dr. Rogers! When Dr. Rogers darted him,
the lion actually became frightened and ran away. He fell a few yards away from
his friend. Dr. Rogers phoned us to come and move the lion. When I approached
this lion on foot, I was blown away by his size. He weighed approximately 150
kg (330 lbs) and would be about 250 kg (550 lbs) when he was fully grown. His
paw alone was twice as large as my hand! The short hair on his body was very
soft, yet the mane was coarse. It took seven of us to lift him onto to back of
the truck (and we barely made it). The lion was so large that he took up the entire length of the bed. I cannot
imagine what it would have been like if the lion was fully-grown.
After Janelle inserted a catheter and administered Lentrax,
we brought the lion to the hole in the fence and carefully carried the lion
through (yes, the hole was that big), placed him under the shade, and quickly
returned to retrieve the other lion. After both lions were properly situated,
we injected both lions with Dectomax (dewormer), a rabies vaccine, Yohimbin
(reversal), Antisedan (reversal), and Acuphase. Acuphase is a long-acting
sedative we administered to keep the lions quiet for the next couple of days
while they readjust to their enclosure. After the maintenance crew with us
fixed the hole in the fence, we were on our way!
Victoria and I could not have been happier about the past
two days. We had touched and injected Wild Dogs and Lions, spent hours out in
the sunshine enjoying the bush, and added several new drugs to our knowledge.
Spending so much time with these animals was truly a blessing and rare occurrence.
To work with a vet so generous as to allow us to have an active role in
treating these animals is more than I could have ever wished for. He could have
told us to stay back and simply watch during our time in South Africa, but he
truly values our education. He wants us to have as much diverse practical
experience as possible. After five weeks in South Africa, I have handled,
restrained, or treated Lion, Buffalo, Leopard, Rhino, Elephant, Hippo, African
Wild Dog, Nyala, Tsessebe, Duiker, Warthog, Vervet Monkey, Cat, Dog, Goat,
Cattle, Chicken, Horse, Brown-Headed Parrot, White-Headed Vulture, and Brown Snake Eagle. I
cannot wait to see what happens next.
Until next time,
Aria
(Injecting the rabies vaccination.)
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