Eland and Nyala and Sable and crabby humans

Early start this morning; we left at 6:30 for the game farm across the road from here; to give you an idea of size, it still took 30 minutes to get there! "Driveways" here are miles of 2-track, twisting and turning around trees and boulders. We arrived at Leopard Rock before Rita the vet, so had a few minutes to wait. The morning was quite cool, and most of us had our new Vets and Wildlife fleeces on to start the day. We look pretty sharp, if I do say so myself!

Rita had previously told us that she disliked darting eland, because no matter what you put in the dart, they run for a long time afterwards and injure themselves. However, this female had been sold, so had to be darted and transported to her new home at another breeding facility. Rita loaded her dart, we all got on trucks and headed out to the camp where the female elands were. Now, this may sound like they are very confined, but this camp was about 25 acres in size, so there was loads of space! One truck carried Rita, the spotter and the transporter; the other was driven by the owner and carried the wranglers and our group of students. I rode in the front seat for the first time, since I had awakened with a migraine and it wasn't quite gone yet; Jessica was not willing to negotiate. (It's more fun to ride in back!). Of course, the trailer was a bit noisy and awkward in tight spaces, so we hung back from the darting group. Even though it was not much larger than a one-horse trailer, I didn't envy the driver having to turn around on those narrow tracks!

Finally, the darters were out of sight, and the group of eland ran across in front of us. They settled barely within sight, and we heard the "pop" of the dart gun. Immediately the entire group ran, but the rest circled the camp once and settled again. The darted animal, though, continued running circles around and around the camp. She became more and more oblivious to the branches and more frantic as she raced around and around. The owner told me that it is typical for them to run for 8-10 minutes before they go down. Several times, he stepped out of the truck and made some knocking sounds, which brought her coming straight at him at a trot, only to veer off at the last second and resume running. After about 12 minutes of running, we could see strings of saliva from her mouth, and some scrapes on her sides from branches. The transporter shot a second, different dart and caught her just barely on the rump, and about 5 minutes later she finally laid down.

The female eland finally went down. She must have been utterly exhausted!

One of the wranglers (right, in blue) pours water over the eland to cool her down after her long run. The owner, left, in camo coat, is counting her stripes for identification.

Stripes are counted on each side, teeth photographed to document age, horns measured in length and spread, and ear tag number verified. All of this was recorded in the owner's custom record book.

James and Brooklyn working with the eland. The blue spots are from the antiseptic applied to scratches where she ran through underbrush after being darted. 

Eland skin is quite thin, so the injections were much easier than they were on other species. Brooklyn is giving a deworming injection, and James in injecting the partial tranquilizer reversal agent IV in the ear vein.

Successful capture: The eland was loaded into the bed of the truck and driven to the trailer, where she was safely loaded to be moved to a breeding farm.

We drove the trailer close and prepared to load her. From up close, it appeared that the initial dart had struck just sightly too far forward, injecting into the abdominal wall rather than the large rump muscle; this was the first time we saw Rita not  place her dart exactly where she intended.

After minimal processing, she was wet down with cool water to reduce the heat built up by such a long run, and her scratches were cleaned and treated with antiseptic. Elands are so beautiful, very thin-skinned and heavily muscled.

Once she was loaded, the owner left immediately with the trailer, to deliver her before the heat of the day. I am beginning to understand the early starts prevalent around here: By this time it was 8:00 and already getting uncomfortably warm. And this is the end of winter!

Next we followed Rita to another game ranch, where we met up with the same students who were with us for the giraffe capture yesterday. It was apparently their last day in the area, and they would be moving to another part of South Africa later in the afternoon. Their guide was quite cross and reprimanded my students for talking (in the driveway, away from the animals!) He wanted them to go out alone to help with the first nyala; they were to dart a total of 5. Since we had had extensive experience with nyala already, we decided to leave them for the other group, and adjourned to lunch at Wag un Bietjie (Vayt uh Bitty, meaning "wait a minute" and also the name of a thorn tree in Afrikkaans. We had been there a couple of times before, and enjoyed the lovely shop, yard and dessert for lunch!

We met back up with Rita at another farm, where we were to dart 8 sables for transport. This facility was the largest sable breeding facility in the world, and it appeared to be world-class. The owner was organized and knew his stock very well. The sables to be transported were already contained in 2 sturdy bomas, and the trailer and crew were ready to go. It was immediately clear that this herd was far more intensively managed than some that we had seen: The animals were sleek and in much better body condition than the previous group, which also meant almost no ticks on them. There was good hay available to them all around the boma, and plenty of fresh water. Jessica told us that the owner routinely walks the camps to monitor condition, and that his stock is used to his presence.

Rita assembled her darts, gathered the deworming and vitamin injections, and darted the first two sables. They were loaded into the truck inside the boma, driven out, and treated right on the truck bed before being transferred into the trailer for transport. This was repeated until the entire group was loaded.

The first pair of sables in the bed of the truck. They are each lying on a stretcher made of a tarp with handles. Note the very sharp horns!

Here, James is making the IV injection of sedation reversal, while Brooklyn and Summer give vitamins and dewormer IM.

Brooklyn admires the heavy muscling present in these sable. Looking on, left to right, farm owner, Jessica our guide, and, foreground, Rita the vet,

Second pair of sable: Hannah injecting dewormer, while Kait looks on and Rita (blue shirt and tan hat) checks vital signs

Kait injecting dewormer as Rita admires her technique

Chloe giving an IV injection into the ear vein, wth Kait in the background, and Rita's arm far left

Next pair of sable: Brooklyn is injecting into the ear vein, Summer giving vitamins, with Chloe (far left in hat), farm hand (center, red hat) and James (blue shirt) in the background.

Same sable, as Summer injects and Jessica (far right) looks on

Brooklyn isolating the ear vein for IV injection. This is not a usual injection site for pets (except rabbits), so this is a new skill for everybody. 

Hannah giving an IM injection, as owner watches

Kait getting ready to give an IV injection into the ear vein

The last pair of sable: Summer at the head, James demonstrating his reach to inject the far side, and Brooklyn giving the other IM injection

Summer and James, with the owner looking on

Chloe giving the other sable her vitamin injection

And Kait deworming her as Jessica watches. The tarp in the background forms part of the boma where the hoofstock is confined for sorting, darting and treatment

Summer finds the ear vein, with James coaching

Hannah administers the final IV reversal to the cows being shipped

Meanwhile, we noticed a very lame sable in one of the pens, and another that was limping as well. These were darted for examination: The first appeared to have footrot in one front hoof, and a major broken claw on the other, with the tender quick exposed. Both feet were trimmed and treated with disinfectant, and he was given antibiotics. The other simply appeared to need some hoof maintanance; the high plane of nutrition also caused fast hoof growth. Unfortunately, he didn't appreciate having his hooves worked on, and began shaking his horns around. Brooklyn scrambled out of the way just in time!

Final reversal injections were administered inside the trailer. Left to right, Summer, Brooklyn, Jessica and Chloe

Chloe reversing sedation on the trailer as Jessica observes

Trailer-side setup with medications arranged on the fender. This was a convenient arrangement for this task.

Left to right: Hannah, James, Chloe, Brooklyn and Jessica

Farewell and a good job done! Jessica cheesing!

Satisfied, hot and filthy, we headed back to our lodge. The sun set shortly afterward, and I can smell supper at this very moment. I don't know what it will be, but I saw and heard Jane working over the fire just up the hill, so probably something traditional and fire-cooked!

(Update: I got called away just as the photos uploaded. Supper was ribs barbecued on the fire, roast butternut squash, mixed veggies, garlic bread and salad with avocado. Mmmmm!)

Tomorrow we have some morning vet work, afternoon horse safari, and will squeeze our darting practicum in between if time permits. We will be darting targets from the ground, and another day from a helicopter! Wheeee!