Our job was to capture and confine 2 additional nyala, a male and a female, along with the 4 females captured yesterday. This particular game farm has exceeded its carrying capacity for nyala, so moving several to another preserve will help prevent disease and malnutrition due to overpopulation. The four females captured yesterday were in an enclosure called a boma, which is made of tarps so that they don't see the activity going on around them. This keeps their stress levels lower. However, these animals are also quite acclimated to the presence of humans, so we were able to peek in and see them. They look a bit like small white-tailed deer with big ears and white vertical stripes. I could never figure out why they had stripes, until I saw them in their native habitat, where their brown bodies and white stripes perfectly conceal them against the dirt, leaves and white tree trunks.
We crowded into a small pickup and the game spotter/relocater drove with the vet riding shotgun. Except she was actually riding dart gun. Once we found nyala in a spot where she could get a clear shot, the vet shot a tranquilizer dart into the left shoulder of a medium-sized female. The group of nyala immediately ran, but the darted female became unsteady on her feet quite quickly, and went down about 100 yards from where the dart struck her. We carried her back to the truck and drove her back to the boma, examined, vaccinated and treated her for ticks. She had a huge number of tiny ticks in her ears.
Nyala is down and tranquilized. Chloe is supporting her head so that she doesn't regurgitate rumen fluid into her respiratory tract.
Hannah and Kait vaccinate the nyala. Behind them is the tarp forming the side of the boma, or enclosure, where the other nyala are held for transport.
The sedation reversal agent has been given and she will be up in about a minute. They need to get her into the boma before then!
We went back out in search of the male, but were unable to find him. This was likely due to the cool, breezy weather driving them into deeper cover than usual. Eventually, we gave up the search and decided to move on to checking the hippos that were awaiting transport at another game preserve. After a coffee run, we drove back to a natural pond area, and as we parked, 3 hippos waded into the pond and submerged themselves right in front of us. Looking further down the road, we also spotted giraffes, kudu and warthogs. As we climbed up the boma to look in at the captive hippos, we realized that they were quite depressed. They had destroyed their water container, and one had some serious skin issues. Walking around to the pond side, we saw a crocodile watching from the shallow water. Water tank was repaired, hippos were hosed down and sprayed with antiseptic for skin wounds.
What looks to be a grey ball floating in the water is in fact a hippo's head. They just hung out in the water while we worked on shore.
Here you can see all 3 hippos, an adult and 2 juveniles, in the water. At one point the adult surfaced and made a loud "chuff" noise as he exhaled through his nostrils, which close underwater.
Today's (and tomorrow's) fearless guides, Rita the vet and Jessica the program coordinator and She Who Makes Everything Happen. Hippos in the water behind them, and just to Rita's right there is a small crocodile in the water as well.
The hippos in the enclosure. They are clearly stressed, partially at capture and confinement, especially without a way to enter the water. Note the severely cracked skin on the one in the center. Because he cannot be handled directly, we sprayed antiseptic on him from above....
...which we accessed by climbing up the sides of the boma. It's a bit of a scramble!
As we drove back out toward the gate, we spotted 3 cheetah brothers eating their freshly killed kudu. We were less than 6 feet away from them, and could hear them chewing!
Cheetahs are well camouflaged! You can see one of the 3 young male littermates right in the center of the photo. Please rest assured that we remained inside the vehicle, as there were 3 huge cheetahs less than 6 feet away!
A slightly clearer look at one of the cheetahs
These two brothers are changing places. One eats at a time, while the other 2 keep watch for other predators. They are such proficient hunters that, if threatened by another predator, they will simply leave this kudu and go kill another. The kudu's curly horn is clearly seen to the left of the photo, and you can see that the cheetahs have eaten the hindquarter muscle first, and are just now beginning on the abdomen. Also note how fat and full-bellied the cheetah in front appears!
The second cheetah approaches the kudu to eat again.
He sniffs a bit...
...looks around....
...and sets to work. He is chewing pieces of tough skin off from the abdomen, and the abdominal muscles can be seen underneath.
He is magnificent!
We know that these are 3 related males because female cheetahs are solitary, and males would not cooperate with unrelated others.
We watched them for perhaps 10 minutes; they were minimally concerned with our presence.
The conservation worker started his 4-wheeler back up, causing this guy to look his way,
then return to eating almost immediately.
This lighter day's work left us time to stop at the local shops. There were locally produced tapestries, wood and stone carvings, metal sculptures, rugs, etc. and we all found some great souvenirs. We also stopped to buy fresh fruit: Oranges and grapes are in season!
I had an interesting conversation with Jane this evening after supper. She does the cooking and cleaning here and she is amazing. She is from Zimbabwe, and has been in South Africa working for the past 10 years, since she couldn't find work in Zimbabwe. We discussed their recent elections, the struggles she and her family have had when their economy went bad, and her ongoing sense of hope for both herself and her country. I hope I can talk to her again; I learn so much more about places when I can talk to people!
I am going to post photos quickly, then head for bed. We leave at 6:15 tomorrow morning to work with capture and transport of several nyala at a different preserve, and it sounds as if we will have a full day. We also have plans to visit a big cat sanctuary, swim at a waterfall, and have hands-on encounters with elephants and hippos, in addition to our horseback days and ongoing vet work. We figure we can sleep on the planes all the way home!
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