A day in the bush July 17

Lions and Sable Antelope doing well in Chobe

 

A busy day July 10

Had a busy day today. I was called by a guide in park that he had seen the wild dog with the broken leg. We responded immediately and spent 3 hours trying to track them down. Unfortunately it was so cool that they were on the move hunting. I was very impressed with the cooperation of the guides and parks department working as a team to get the jobs accomplished.  My goal is to strengthen these binds as the guides are in the park all day everyday with tourists and are in radio communication. I then responded to a call of a sick Baboon at one of the game lodges. The poor guy was obviously an old buck that had been beaten up and kicked out of the troop. We darted him and treated him with antibiotics and pain medication. On the way to the park he decided to start waking up in the backseat, which led to slamming on the brakes and all doors flying open to get out before he grabbed us. I darted him with another dose and the poor guy fell asleep again but not before soiling the back of my land cruiser. We hope he recovers from his bite wounds to his backside and can find a peaceful life in the bush. Never a dull moment.

Wildlife work is so unexpected. Sometimes weeks go by with no occurrences then it’s every day. I responded to a call of 2 warthogs in town that had been injured. Both hogs had a prolapsed uterus and rectum. I could only explain that by them either being hit by a car or injecting plastics causing an intestinal obstruction and straining to defecate. They were both inside a drainage ditch so we had quite a time getting them out to dart them. After successfully sedating them examination revealed severe injury and infection to prolapses in both cases. Unfortunately treatment in these cases is usually unsuccessful and both needed to be euthanized by injection while asleep. It would have taken them a week to die from these injuries. Later this evening Park wardens brought in a Goshawk that had been hit by a car. It was in severe shock and has a broken wing. Unfortunately Goshawk died that  evening.

Blood samples taken for research

Blood samples taken for research

On return from a trip to Gaborone i was asked to assist park officials in getting blood and stool samples .We managed to dart a Sable Antelope after 4 attempts with darts and we darted a buffalo bull and took blood and fecal samples.BDF assisted us I keeping animals way while we did our work. It was nice to have cooperation.

6/25/2011 Went with veterinary techs from Maun and darted an Elephant, impala and warthog and collected blood and stool samples. BDF assisted us again.

2 good days of hard work and camaraderie were had.All darted animals were not harmed in the process.

Buffalo with snare June 16, 2011

Buffalo with snare

Called by parks to attend limping buffalo by Safari lodge. We located it and I darted it with 1cc M99. The buffalo went down 5 minutes later. He had a wire snare on his right hind hock. I decided this was a survivable wound and proceeded to clean and suture wound together. Buffaloes head was covered and his respirations were regular and not labored. After last suture the animal went into cardiac arrest within 20 seconds. Antidote was administered but the buffalo died. It was not anesthetic related as it was 40 minutes into episode and was wearing off. It was a very old Buffalo and due to its grey colour of its mucous membranes it indicated a stress induced heart attack. I was quite disappointed as it should have healed up. Mr. Khan and park team was on hand to assist me. My vehicle was severely damaged by driving thru the thick bush.

Leopard hit by car June 12 2011

Leopard hit by car

Report to Parks of Leopard incident

On Saturday morning at 10 am I received a call from Sedudu gate of injured leopard by Chobe Farms, I was on scene in 10 minutes.

On arrival there were many vehicles and observers.

Leopard was approximately 2 year old female and was recumbent by side of road but still alive. There was a large crowd of onlookers standing with in 3 meters of the leopard.  I examined it briefly and noted it had a head and leg injury. On the way back to the vehicle to retrieve shock treatment the leopard got up and ran to the bush.Police were ineffective with crowd control an no one would offer me assistance from crowd or scientists on scene. This could have been a very dangerous situation were onlookers could have been seriously injured especially since leopard was conscious and could have recovered from the obvious concussion to brain

I loaded a dart with Zoletil and darted it to sedate her.After the safe 10 minute wait to make sure she was sleeping,I had to crawl on my stomach to retrieve the animal from under a bush  and hole it had gone under.

On examination she had a head injury but most significantly her right hind leg had severe trauma and a broken bone.  The leg could possibly be repaired but it would be a long and expensive ordeal and I could not guarantee that it would be able to hunt on its own again. Not having a proper facility to house her and treat her everyday I decided to euthanize her by injectable means. Parks took carcass away.

Far too many animals are being hit by cars on the tar roads by reckless and speeding drivers.

A few notable surgeries

A few notable surgeries
NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH

Sometimes i have to take a break from the wildlife work to assist injured domesticated animals. 2 interesting surgeries.
The first was a 5 year old rotweiler with a severe infection in her uterus refered to as a pyometra, If dogs are not spayed by 5 to 6 years old chances of this happening are high especially if they have had puppies, Infection gets into the uterus and it becomes a bag full of puss. Its fatal if not treated in time.

This is its uterus full of pus. Dog recuperated 100%
This next broken femur was from a Russian wolf hound. they had been playing when owner fell on puppy and broke its leg, The problem is that is was a circular fracture of the bone kind of like when a chicken bone splinters, The splinter went all the what to the bottom of the bone making the surgery extremely difficult. Atfter much manipulation I managed to put it together. 4 1/2 hours of surgery

Dog is running on his leg 2 months later

Translocation of Lions from Farming community

Translocation of Lions from Farming community

Report parks re : Lion relocation from Pandamatenga on  14/5/2011

Dr Clay Wilson Veterinarian and Honourary Warden Chobe national Park

On Tuesday 14 of April I received a text message from Head Warden whom was in Gaborone, that there was an incident at Panda with some lions and was asked to deal with it.

I attempted to contact head or research but he was out of cell phone range at another location. Chili also called me and notified me to deal with situation at Panda. I could not contact wardens on duty but finally managed to collect Lawita and we responded.

The office at panda was informed we were on hour away and wardens on call in Kasane were found and told to head toward the scene.

On arrival we were flagged down by a police van on the main road. A vehicle was parked by the side of the road and to my surprise a very irritated lion ran out of the bush and attacked the vehicle. I chased lion away and informed an elderly lady that was obviously observing to please move along. She came back on 2 occasions and was aggravated with me when I was stern with her and told her she was interfering with our work.

A German man from the local lodge was there and he told me that there were 5 lions. One large male and an other lion had run thru the fence and had apparently injured itself very badly in the process. It was evident from the fence that had been bent over at an extreme angle that this had happened. 3 Lions remained one large very aggressive adult female, and a sub adult male and female. The German man wanted me to relocate them across the fence on the Zimbabwe border. There has been tremendous conflict with lions at panda being killed by farmers that I did not agree. I

After much time and effort I managed to dart all 3 lions. They were very hard to find in the thick grass and were very aggressive. By chance the 2 wildlife vehicles one from Panda with a bedfull of passengers and one from Kasane arrived just in time. I instructed them to collect the cages at the wildlife office and return immediately.

Lions sedated had to be given extra injections to keep them sedated. 4 Darts were used along with 3 bottles of Zoletil and one bottle of Ketamine. A full tank of fuel was used.

We could not contact Head Wardens so after much discussion Latiwa and I decided it was best to relocate lions to Chobe Park. Blood samples were taken from all animals and a quick clinical examination was made. They appeared to be perfectly healthy to me but a little thin as they had not eaten. No symptoms of disease were evident. They had been trapped between the 2 fences of the main road and apparently had been causing problems with the local population. Of this I am not sure.

We loaded 2 young lions into one truck and lioness into other. BDF had come to assist but everyone was scared and I had to be stern to get help to load them up.

On the way to Kasane I finally contacted head of research and he agreed that we should relocate them to Ihaha since there were no lion prides in that area that we know of.

We met him at Sedudu gate and proceeded to Ihaha. One of the vehicles ran out of fuel at this extended our time in the field.

At approximately 10 pm we arrived by riverfront at Ihaha. All lions were released from vehicles and we returned home after 11 pm.

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this incident by local people that criticized we should not have moved them into the park because of risk of disease transfer. I totally disagree as lions could cover that distance in 3 to 4 days if they wanted to. I have blood samples if necessary. I also felt that leaving them at Panda they would just be shot and killed as has been the case on many occasions.

As a professional I believe in conjunction with parks official on site and Mr. Gadimang that we made the correct decision but am willing to take responsibility for my actions.

We had a situation and we dealt with it to the best of our ability and made decisions on the spot as we had poor communications.

I was very pleased with the cooperation of the Panda Police department. BDF and Kasane and Panda Parks department for an exercise in which we all cooperated and had positive results.

The lion population in Chobe at the moment is unstable as new prides have moved in and are establishing their territories and dominance.  I have seen various lionesses. One has 3 cubs (she has one eye and easily identifiable and I had treated her for mastitis 3 months ago) and I believe there are 2 or 3 mature males. I spotted a new lioness with 5 cubs the other day so I am happy they are coming back in.

As you well know it is my strong belief that most of the lions were killed by a distemper outbreak last year that affected domestic dogs in Kasane. I have not been able to prove it as sick animals go in to the bush to die and as we have no use of aircraft of helicopter. it’s very hard to patrol park where there are no roads. Once I get funding we will collar a few of the dominant lionesses and blood test them for all diseases. I am sure that we will find they have been exposed to canine distemper virus and it’s my hope with this proof that the government will assist with mandatory Distemper vaccinations in domesticated dogs in areas such as Kasane were we live In close contact with wildlife. As for the movement we do not know were lions are coming from, we will never know until we collar and satellite track them on a daily basis.

All other theories that have been put forward as to why lions disappeared last year during the height of winter, are just that, and cannot be proven without hard facts and scientific data. I have been attempting to make an appointment with HE for the past 3 months with no response from his secretaries so I can discuss with him the needs of the wildlife department and human wildlife conflict from my point of view as I have been volunteering my services for the past 3 years and believe I have some insight and a different outlook. We need a helicopter and 24/7 anti poaching unit along with UAV.

 As a follow up all 2 lions were spotted on July 13 about 5 kilometers away from release point. They were fit and fat and had adapted to their new home. No other prides of lions have moved into that area