Enjoy!
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The Amakhala Game Reserve in Grahamstown, South Africa has a wide variety of antelope species, giraffes, elephants, zebras and white rhinos along with a healthy diversity of avian species like ostriches, starlings and birds of prey, all living a quiet and harmonious life in this thicket biome. A large part of the course revolved around ‘game drives’ where the group set off on land rovers around the game reserve to observe the terrain, watch for animals and get used to spotting and tracking animals. The first game drive that we went on I felt like I was on a safari, and I learned a lot of disconnected but interesting facts about the reserve and its animals. Soon, as game drives became frequent, we got more used to noticing subtle differences in terrain and colors on the ‘felt’, as the open field is called there. The entire trip was filled numerous interesting and adventurous incidents, starting with our very first game drive on the second evening after our arrival at camp. We had stopped to observe a family group of elephants at a distance from us. Suddenly a large bull mounted what seemed like a sub-adult female, and we were told later that even the owner of the reserve had never had the honor of witnessing two elephants mating. It was, in my opinion, a funny and spectacular start to my short time on the reserve.
The group I was with for the ensuing two weeks was a very diverse one. There were seven students that had come from an Australian veterinary school, two of which were originally from Great Britain and Canada, two Belgians, and five students from different American veterinary schools among which was I, an Indian national. The same evening after the first game drive when we got back to the camp and after dinner were sitting around the bonfire, I came to know that Australian veterinary schools actively encourage students to bring alcohol to campus during examinations. As I understood from the Australians, their country’s veterinary universities believe that alcoholism is a great way to deal with a stress-inducing curriculum. I was amused and offended at the same time, but it was an incident which I wanted to note in this travel log.
The course was structured so that no matter what year of veterinary school we were in, we would become prepared to handle immobilization of animals. To achieve this goal, we were lectured on the subjects of pharmacology, physiology, diseases of wildlife and conservation medicine. With a strong foundation in theory, and fairly immediate application of our knowledge, I felt that I learned a lot more and lot faster. I was happy to see myself participating and asking questions in a smaller classroom setting as it reinforced my interest in wildlife medicine. We also utilized game drives to learn how to identify different species of antelope and how to sex the animals on the reserve. We were also lectured on marine mammal medicine. At the end of the course, we were tested on these subjects.
The next morning we set out early to immobilize two sibling sub-adult cheetahs. The darting process took quite a while with us in the jeep following the cheetahs. After the darts were fired and both cheetahs in lateral recumbence, we split up into two groups and got working on them. When an animal is immobilized, the first thing to do is making sure they are not over-heated. After that has been ensured we are required to closely and continuously monitor the patient’s heart rate, respiration and blood oxygen saturation. In the meantime the animal is to be given antibiotics, multivitamins and blood samples are to be collected if possible. The above was a general outline of the procedures involved that we had to follow. On this occasion which was our first immobilization trip, one of the cheetahs woke up twice; once while the students were conducting tests on the patient, and another time just before we were going to release him inside a ‘boma’ or open enclosure. We had formed a circle around this cheetah and Dr. Brothers was talking to the group when the cheetah arose and ran around in circles, even before it was time to give him an antidote for the drug, as it was still groggy from the drug and obviously in stress. After every immobilization Dr. Brothers held a conference with all the students to go over the case, discuss and explain any difficulties that arose and also to answer our doubts. In this situation, it was determined that the cheetah was given a lower dose of immobilizing drug than should have been used as a result of another veterinarian’s miscalculation of its body weight. The situation, according to Dr. Brothers, could have and should have been avoided. Nerve-racking though it was, it was an excellent learning experience as to know how to react and exit the boma without panicking.
The next day we set out very early in the morning to dart two zebras, one male and one female, to relocate them to another reserve. One of the females we darted was pregnant. The darting session took almost two hours as it turned into a cat-and-mouse chase partly because jeeps can be very noisy and startle the animals when the ignition is turned on. The animals are sensitive enough to notice that there may be danger if the jeep went off course, and this was another reason the pregnant mare was difficult to corner in on. After about seven hours since the time we left camp, we made our way back tired and energized at the same time. That evening we learned to load darts and learned about different darting systems and guns. In a few days we would get to practice darting at a fixed target with two different gun systems.
Another incident that is certainly worth mentioning is the immobilization of black rhino calves in a different reserve which is known for its successful work in black rhino conservation and research. The reserve required that some black rhino calves on their reserve be darted so that they could insert a microchip in their horns which would be used as a tracking device and also for research purposes. Dr. Brothers got on a helicopter to dart the rhinos that were closely following their respective mothers. The first black rhino was darted successfully after its mother was chased a considerable distance away. We performed the necessary procedures like drawing blood, taking rectal temperature, heart rate and respiration, but the highlights of the process were the microchipping process where a little bit of the rhino’s horn was sawed off the top, and a hole drilled into it to insert the microchip and then plugged with a seal, as well as the ear-clipping procedure which is done to be able to identify every individual rhino. After the procedures were complete and just before giving the calf an antidote, we decided to take pictures. A dozen cameras were handed in and just as we were getting ready to smile we were warned that the mother of this calf was heading straight for us! In an instant we were all clambering up the jeeps with our medical equipment and backing up as we saw the mother charging at us. Fortunately, she decided to give up as soon as she saw her calf. The calf had been given the antidote to the drug in time so we had one less thing to worry about. It was clear that this was a dangerous situation for any veterinarian. I realized that this, like any other job, has its occupational hazards but that it was a little more risky than many areas of the veterinary profession because medical care is provided in a natural setting with minimal protection against nature and her wild inhabitants. I had also decided, at that moment, that wildlife medicine was definitely what I want to be involved with as a profession.
Another noteworthy incident occurred when we undertook a major relocation of family groups of zebras. Darting and examination of animals had to be carried out quickly and effectively and we split into several small groups to monitor animals. I was in the first group that got off the jeep to start the monitoring procedures but even before we got off we encountered a problem. The animal that had been darted was already beginning to move around. After brief communication with Dr. Brothers who had left the site by then to dart another zebra, we decided to get off the vehicle to regulate the animal’s body temperature in case in posed a threat later on. With some people restraining the animal, we managed to keep it stable long enough to carry it in a stretcher into the crate for transportation. I was one of the last ones in the crate along with a ranger and another student preparing to finish up on our procedure and give the animal an antidote when the zebra stood up. At that point, if the animal had been completely awake, I realized that we would have been seriously injured at the least, probably even killed because the crate’s small entrance was blocked by the zebra itself, allowing no chance of escape while it was standing. The ranger managed to grab hold of its neck and bring the animal back on its knees and we bolted out of the crate. In all this the ranger had even managed to inject the antidote and we waited outside the crate while the zebra thrashed about in the crate, disoriented and afraid. It was an experience to which words cannot really do justice.
I got to observe and participate in a cheetah surgery. The purpose of the surgery was to replace a transmitter in the cheetah’s abdomen that had run the course of its life. Some clients, we were told, like some animals on their reserve, especially cheetahs, to have either a collar (which is completely non-invasive, but aesthetically displeasing) or an internal transmitter (which requires surgery to be replaced every 1 to 2 years). Another incident of cheetah waking up occurred this time, to our surprise and dismay, but it was easier to rectify the situation, with an intravenous injection of ketamine, in a more controlled surgical environment.
Some other things we did included visiting the Addo Elephant National Park, an orphanage for children who have been affected by HIV/AIDS at some level in their young lives, and a boat ride to an island St. Croix, off the coast of Port Elizabeth where we got to see the largest population of African jackass penguins. We were also fortunate to also see a couple of rather curious capefur seals and a Great Right Whale. We were taken to the Born Free Reserve very close to Amakhala where we saw some tragically overweight leopards. It is notorious for being a reserve surrounded by controversy and we, as impressionable veterinary students were not sure how to receive the information that was being relayed. I personally felt that although the intentions of the reserve are noble, improvements can be made with respect to rehabilitation of the wild animals instead of housing them in small enclosures and allowing minimal stimulation for them.
One of the first things that struck me about the life of a veterinarian in a wildlife conservation setting was that no amount of planning can prepare you for your day. Each day has to be planned for as if everything will go according to what one is expecting, but there is always that element of surprise, failure or risk that has to be added to the equation to allow the veterinarian to adjust his/her plan of action quickly and effectively. I admire that a lot about wildlife medicine. The owner of Amakhala, Dr. William Fowlds who is a veterinarian and a conservationist, lectured us one evening on the history of conservation in South Africa. It was one of the two illuminating lectures in this course that made a big impression on me. I was introduced to the intricacies of conservation of wildlife, the purpose of game reserves, and this one in particular, as well as future possibilities among other things. The other lecture that moved me was by another conservationist who called himself Skulk. He led a nature hike for the students where he talked about the fauna and flora of the reserve and this was followed by a presentation on some topics of conservation and ecology. I am very glad to have been able to experience this course because it has given me a tangible exposure to conservation medicine which is something I am becoming more interested in everyday.
