Advanced Wildlife Immobilisation & Conservation Course - Another beautiful day in South Africa...

August 2, 2010


The sun rises over the beautiful African plains, sending rays of warmth through the window of our little home away from home. A beautiful horizontal rainbow coats the horizon as the chilly winter night surrenders to the warm day ahead. I look over at my bunkmate and smile. It’s another beautiful day in South Africa!

I reflect for a bit on why I came to this country as I get dressed and start to pack my bag for the day ahead. I had heard about this amazing program from one of my veterinary professors at Virginia Tech, back in the USA. They knew about my interest in South Africa and African animals and encouraged me to see if there were any spots left. Now, two years later, I’ve once again returned to this country wanting to learn even more about the wildlife and how to treat them.

Dr. Peter Brothers, our veterinary guide for the trip, meets us for breakfast and we chat for a bit about the day ahead. We’re driving to the beautiful Mattanu reserve near Kimberly (http://www.mattanu.com/) to spend the rest of our stay, and we’re going to be doing some buffalo work in the afternoon. The six girls suddenly gang up on him, begging to be taken shopping in Kimberly and to see the sights. It’s not often that we get time to go shopping in town, since we have a very tightly packed schedule on these trips, so us girls will take the opportunity when one arises!

After a lovely morning of sight-seeing, we arrived at the reserve and are greeted with brilliant luxury! After a warm meal in the beautiful lodge, we begin the prep for buffalo capture. Dr. Brothers begins to fire questions at us, and we all try and remember what we’ve studied and learned on the trip last year. What drugs do we use to treat them? What problems do we often see with Cape Buffalo recovery? Why should they be kept sternal? My brain flies through the drug combinations, trying to remember everything I’ve learned. I’ve only got two years of veterinary school under my belt, but I don’t feel at a disadvantage at all, thanks to Dr. Brother’s patience and wonderful teaching skills. It’s not many vet students who can say that their first subcutaneous injection was on a cheetah, or their first blood draw was from a zebra.

We prepare to load the car when Dr. Brothers tells us that one lucky person gets to ride in the helicopter today and see the darting from the air. The girls look at me and smile. “It’s your turn, Sylvia,” they say. My heart begins to flutter as I walk over and the pilot goes over the safety aspects of flying in a helicopter. Soon we’re off the ground, flying high over the park, watching the animals run below us like herds of insects. We finally spot the buffalo we’re looking for, and SNAP! The gun goes off and the dart is in. The pilot begins to herd the other animals away from the darted one, who is quickly beginning to lag. Suddenly he’s on the ground, and the pilot looks for a safe place to land. We land, and I run over to the animal to help my classmates with monitoring the patient.

He’s a big Buffalo bull, and it takes about 15 strong men to get him sternal. Right away we check temperature and breathing. Finding them stable and in a good range, we begin loading him into the trailer. Piling in, we continue monitoring as the tractor and trailer full of people and one sleepy buffalo rush to the next one that’s been darted. The procedure repeats, and one more drowsy bull is added to the trailer. I’m forced to position myself between the head of the massive animals, knowing that there is a good chance that they could wake up and suddenly come forward at me. But that’s part of the risk of veterinary medicine, and the part of the job that I enjoy the most. As we bump over the savanna, I keep a hand near the nose, watching for any change in breathing to signal the animal is failing, or even worse – waking.

After what seems like hours, we finally reach the site of the bull’s new home. A quick reversal and a rush to the vehicles, and the two buffalos begin to wake. As we drive home, we congratulate ourselves on working as a team and getting the job done safely and efficiently. That night, we go over the case outside by the pool, watching the sun set across the African plains. Just another beautiful day in South Africa!

Sylvia Grove
Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine
Advanced Wildlife Immobilisation & Conservation Course - 25 July - 7 August 2010

Brothers Safaris Updates: Our last few days in South Africa on the Wildlife Immobilisation & Conservation Course, 8 July.

We have had a great couple of days darting animals. Yesterday, we had the privilege of working with young black rhinos. After each rhino was immobilized, we helped monitor, draw blood, and ear notch them. While we were busy with one of the youngsters, the mother decided to come back for her baby. Someone warned us to run, and everyone rushed back and quickly jumped into the vehicle. Once we were there, we realized we had actually been running toward the mother and now were in between her and her baby. The guys were able to chase her away long enough for us to finish up treatments, and they were happily reunited a few minutes later. It was a great adrenaline rush!!

Today, we had a rough start with strong winds and very lively wildebeest bulls that were doing everything they could to stay away from the truck. Eventually our luck got a little better, and we were able to immobilize several bulls and relocate them to a holding facility. It ended up being a great last day as we watched the sun set one final time.

Grace Kell (University of Tennessee, U.S.A.) and the students on the Wildlife Immobilisation and Conservation Course - 8 23 July 2010

So what does it take to be a wildlife vet, part 2.....

After my introduction, where to start next….? Maybe I should point out that generally a wildlife vet works with lions, tigers and bears (despite two of these three not being indigenous to SA…) whereas an “exotics” (note the “s”!) vet works with valuable birds (of the feathered variety), caged/pet reptiles, spiders, caged primates, etc.
If you work in a zoo you will be exposed to all of the above, and a whole lot more! I have helped out at one of our largest zoos in the country and found it immensely interesting, but also somewhat sad and frustrating in other ways – some animals just do not belong in zoos and money is not an excuse to keep animals in poor conditions, rather release them back in their natural environment and country if conditions cannot be rectified.
Anyway, these days I mostly work with various antelope species, especially the rare ones (sable, roan, etc) and colour variants (golden gnu, black impala, etc), rhino (white and black), predators (lion and cheetah mostly), elephant, disease free (this is a discussion on its own!) buffalo and various others such as giraffe (they like to die on you, so you don’t always rush at a job involving them!). Please bare in mind this is in South Africa and that our situation and conditions are very different from other African, and even Southern African, countries. Here everything is fenced in at some stage – maybe after 250 hectares, maybe after 2.5 million hectares – which has pro’s and cons, but it certainly has a large impact on us as vets and the work we do. I would say without doubt that it increases the veterinary work load greatly and creates work opportunities that would not otherwise exist. But fences are another discussion, not entirely in the realm of what I am supposed to be sharing with you, so let me move on before I get side-tracked, which I easily do.
The veterinarian’s role almost always almost always involves chemical immobilisation (not anaesthesia, there are some important technical differences which one needs to bare in mind if you want to live a long life while doing this job….) of the animal firstly.
If the animal is just being relocated then you need to get it into the truck or crated enclosure, alive preferably, and then revive it by giving the antidote. Now some of these antidotes given intravenously work very fast, – as in 30 – 90 seconds fast – so it is important that you get out of the truck or crate enclosure rather smartly after administering the antidote. More on darting and immobilisation in the next part…..
Wild African Regards,

Our 1st week on the Wildlife Immobilisation & Conservation Course, 8 July - 23 July 2010 PART 1!

Today we spent time at Addo Elephant National Park. What an AMAZING place!! We were able to spend some time with the Conservation Manager of the park John, and learned about the conservation and management of the reserve. It was great to hear about his work and the history of the park. We enjoyed a dribe through the reserve and were able to view many species of animals including Elephant, Kudu, Warthog, Yellow mongoose, jackal and even the elusive Dung Beetle! What a beautiful park!

After returning back to Amakhala Game Reserve we were treated to an evening river cruise and enjoyed the peace and tranquility of South AFrica at its finest!

We are currently enjoying a quiet evening around the fire and anxiously awaiting the adventures that tomorrow holds including an early morning game drive (hopefully including the Africa Lions......)

Beth Kaiser (IOWA State University, USA) & the rest of the students on the Wildlife Immobilisation & Conservation Course, 14 July 2010

So what does it take to be a wildlife vet-part1

I imagine images of James Herriot flash through many of your minds (for those of you who haven't read his books and have an interest in animals and the adventures one encounters while caring for them, you should find one and read it), and in some ways you wouldn't be far off - what with perilously hanging out of a helicopter trying to dart a fast moving zig-zag blur of fur and horns, to having to break a hasty retreat from a not-so-sedated charging rhino! There are certainly adventures a plenty...

But the truth is you do not have to be a "special" vet to start off in wildlife, in the academic sense that is, but as a person you do need to be very determined and a little daft...

I started off my veterinary career in the UK after completing my studies at Onderstepoort, here in South Africa. During my 5 and a half years in the UK I treated everything from cats and dogs to cattle, sheep, pigs, rabbits, snakes and spiders, and ostriches in Wales(they play some rough rugby there!). But my heart was always in wildlife and when I returned to South Africa I was determined to work in the wildlife field as a vet, but not just relocating animals - I wanted to still practice veterinary science. Not an easy ambition.

African Vet Safaris

To cut a very long story short(a 7 year story in fact), I now own and run a specialist safari business as well as practising as a wildlife veterinarian. The safari business(http://www.brothressafaris.com/) offers guests(lay persons and veterinary affiliated persons) the opportunity or join me on select wildlife procedures as a vet. Guests are often hands on and totally behind the scenes, giving them rare insight into the world of wildlife in South Africa. Through their participation guests fund most of the work they are privy too, thus supporting wildlife conservation. This enables us to select and work with certain projects and organisations that need the veterinary and financial support, as well as still working with private game reserves and owners. A large part of my business is training foreign(mostly) vets, vet students and vet nurses in the art(for it often in an 'art' rather than an exact science...remember this as you follow this blog) of wildlife immobilisation, and also about conservation issues.

Somewhere in between all this I still work as a wildlife bet responding to calls, emergencies and routine work for individuals and game reserves. The trick is to find family time for Becky my significant other, William - our gorgeous lively 3 year old son, and 'Shot'-the not-so-young daft but adorable white Bull Terrier. Vet call outs thus often become family affairs.

So now you have a fair idea of how crazy you need to be if you want to be a wildlife vet. Of course not all wildlife vets have this much going on-they simply work 12-18hour days as vets from April to October, and then try catch up on the rest of their lives from November to March.

Oh yes, I also managed to recently complete a Masters Degree in Veterinary Tropical Diseases of Wildlife. Fortunately it was a web based degree so I could squeeze it on somewhere between midnight and two am when i find myself at a loss for things to do...

So now you know all that, I guess you want to know what I actually do as a vet?

Well then watch this space....

Wild African Regards,
Dr Peter S. Brothers
Wildlife Vet & Director Brothers Safaris/African Vet Safaris

New course starting 8 July 2010

Tomorrow our 2nd Wildlife Immobilisation & Conservation Course students arrive, we have students from Denmark, the USA & Belgium. We are all very excited and nearly ready!!
To see the course that will be running open the link below and see the adventure that awaits our
students.
http://www.brotherssafaris.com/index.php/Specialist-Veterinary-Safaris/wildlife-immobilisation-a-conservation-course.html

What a trip!Becky, young William and Dr Brothers left Grahamstown on 14 April and returned on 25 April. During this time they travelled more than 3500km, stayed at 4 different venues and darted 5 lion, twice, and 4 rhino...You have had updates along the way but basically we helped with a thermal ecology research project in lion and implanted thermal sensors intra-abdominally in 2 lions(4 were planned but there may be an equipment change so we decided
to do 2 to start with and monitor them over the next month before implanting the other two) and then we had a few days in the bush before returning to the Pretoria area and working with clients there. Here we immobilised 4 rhino and dehorned them, sadly , to try prevent them being poached and to save their lives. The procedures went well - although I definitely recommend a chain saw rather than a hand saw!-and all rhino are doing well again. If you simply Google"Rhino poaching South Africa" you will be shocked to read some of the references in terms of the number of animals being killed, and those people alleged to be involved, including foreign ambassadors in our country!
Watch our website for some photos of this trip in the near future. Now it is back to the office and admin for a little while before we do some black rhino and mountain zebra (both endangered species) work. Early May sees us heading off to Durban for the annual Indaba tourism show, and then late May we start our vet student training courses again, and from there it is all downhill until late in the year when we breathe again momentarily.....
Watch this space for updates and any information on emergencies that come in in the meantime.