This weeks adventure

The adventures of the week end behind me, it was back to buffalo on Monday morning. Becky joined me, despite he cold which is making her feel lousy, and we darted eight animals ranging in aged form 12 weeks to about 12 years. All went well although the last cow did break through the fence of the camp they were in and make loading very tough for the team – luckily she was well drugged by then and did not go far. The animals were being sold and went off in the truck after 3 darting and retrieving sessions.


Tuesday the action continues with some waterbuck being darted form the air first thing. They are being moved onto a nearby game farm and I hope all goes well – they are notorious for running and running after darting, but I ma using one of the newer drugs available and it seems to be working better. Later on Tuesday we have two guests arriving and I will be spending until Friday with them. Alan and Jane are American and reside in Netherlands Antilles and our four days will be spent focusing on rhino – their ecology, conservation aspects and the role that veterinarians play in all this. It promises to be a fun educational week, culminating in some work with rhino that we need to dart for various procedures…. I’ll keep you updated.

Another day in paradise

30 October 2010
As you gathered, it was an amazingly scenic flight up the Wild Coast on Friday. On arrival we went straight to work and after loading darts we set out looking for our patients. Spotting a single animal in a herd, with a tracking collar around its neck sounds easier than it is! We got lucky with a zebra and managed to dart it first time, but it had other plans….it kept running and would not slow down, until my worst fears came true – the only thing that was going to stop it was a physical obstacle and that came in the form of a stream. In its intoxicated state, the zebra misjudged the jump and landed on the far bank! I feared for the worst but after the reversal the zebra was just lame on the right front leg, which I could not examine because it was lying on it and I could not move it in that position, so it seemed better than expected. Although I did not see it again the next day, I believe it had a good chance of making a full recovery and hope it did since there was nothing more I could do for it.


Head winds and fuel shortages forced us to stay in a town called Margate for the night, after refuelling at the local airport – not what we had planned! After the noise of a “small city” overnight, we were on our way back to the reserve at 5.30 am on Saturday.
Winds picked up but we found the large eland herd with two collared females near a massive cliff, which is home to a vulture colony. Dodging vultures and fighting sudden downwinds, we decided to drop one of the team to make the helicopter lighter, and proceeded to dart two eland and remove their collars. It was not all plain sailing with the herd running into an area about 50m wide – flanked by a boundary fence on one side, and a sheer cliff on the other….not the time to be pushing the animals too hard…… I think our pilot, Marius, gained some grey hairs as he dodged vultures, fought the winds and tried to fulfil my requests for darting form the back seat….. With our fuel running low we finally found the red hartebeest too. Jan was dropped once again and after some pushing, the female we wanted split onto her own, but she was not slowing down or giving us a shot….. The wind pumping and the red hartebeest galloping left and right at high speed, I was unable to get a shot, and then we were low on fuel again. Off the pilot went with Jan to refuel in Margate, again. On their return they decided it was too dangerous to keep trying in the increasing wind with the weight of the fuel, chasing a nippy red hartebeest, so we packed up and headed home.
Three out of four collars retrieved was not too bad, I just wish we could have finished the job, but one thing we cannot control is the weather, and safety comes first.

All in all an amazing trip not to be forgotten and some video is sure to follow. You wanna see it?

Working in paradise

Dr Brothers flew to a remote game reserve along South Africa’s wild coast this morning to do some work. He has never been to this reserve personally, but believes it is stunningly beautiful with waterfalls that cascade into the ocean…It promises to be a scenic flight! He will be darting several antelope to remove tracking collars that have been collecting data as part of a research program. They landed in East London and  refuelled and are on their way again, the adventure continues... The scenery is magnificent according to Dr Brothers, who will post some video in due course.To make things even better, they are stopping on route to check some marine areas for the ecologist he is doing the work for. What a trip, and they haven’t even started darting!!

Big Cat Safari - 26 September - 4 October 2010 by Jackie and Colin Morris

Wednesday 29th September – Woke at 4.30am for a 5 am breakfast. Cool wind blowing but mostly fine weather. A group of 7 Australians was driven into the reserve and found the location of the lioness we wanted using telemetry and the help of other trackers. Dr Peter Brothers prepared his drugs for the dart gun and a kill was set up to lure the lions out of the scrub so he could get a clear shot at her. Well that took some time having to sit perfectly still and quiet but finally the chance came and she was darted. Of course, she took off into the denser scrub but we found her. Once the cars were in position, Peter and his helpers jumped out to pick up the lioness but we were told not to look at them. Why not, I thought, until Peter says we have to keep a lookout for her sister, her cubs or the male lion to come out of the scrub to help her. But you could only see a metre or two through the bush! Thank goodness we were in the safety of the vehicle. All being well, we drove down the track to a clearing where we could work on her in relative safety. It was a well-oiled operation where Peter got to work replacing her collar and inserting a contraceptive device while we had smaller jobs to do like monitoring her pulse, breathing and body temperature. One of our group was a veterinary nurse so she helped take blood samples. After many photos, an antidote was given and while we watched from a distance, she got up groggily and wobbled into the bush back to her friends. I felt like I’d done a day’s work but it was only 1.30pm and time for lunch. The experience gave all of us a deeper understanding and appreciation for the work wildlife vets do and Peter’s title respectfully grew from the “driver/tour leader” to “the vet”. Overall an immensely exciting and humbling experience putting into perspective our normally humdrum lives.

Thank you Jackie and Colin for your blog and for joining Brothers Safaris on The Big Cat Safari.

Paterson Spay

Dr Debra Nossman & Rebecca Wood, VN

As you may remember in October 2009 Brothers Safaris was approached by the SPCA in Grahamstown to assist with a neutering campaign in our local community, Paterson here in the Eastern Cape, the spay day is part of an on going community project where there is a desperate need for help at all levels. Well this year on 17 September we helped with another neutering campaign in Paterson. This year we had the help of 8 vets from Arizona, USA. they gave their time and expertise for free! We used the community hall as our make shift reception area/prep area/theatre/recovery/kennels and dining room! We neutered 86 animals, so this will make a very small dent in the massively overpopulated Paterson!

Our local paper, The Grocotts Mail joined us for the day, please take a look at the article by following this link - Cats & Dogs get treated in Paterson.


Dr Peter Brothers in action, a mucher smaller patient than he is used too.....

 Brothers Safaris would just like to thank all the people for the donations, time and help but a massive thank you goes to all the vets from Arizona that made this day possible, thank you for giving up a day of your holiday to help this much needed campaign!

My 1st African Vet Safaris experience…. And it beats my office job for sure!!!!

The job at hand was to relocate a Giraffe I have never seen Dr Brothers in the “wild”,

WOW!!! I really was not ready for the adventure that awaited. Everyone was told where they needed to be and what they needed to be doing. I went with one of the rangers and the ground crew. We saw the herd of giraffe, which in itself is an awesome experience. They were so tall and graceful in the distance. Dr Brothers let everyone know which was the animal that we

needed to be move. Dr Brothers darted the animal in a clearing, which would have been perfect. Unfortunately the giraffe had not read the manual on where to fall asleep & moved into a thicket, where he went down. With swift precision everyone went in to do what was required, even a bit of bush clearing was required to gain access to where the giraffe was lying.

The giraffe knockdown medication was reversed immediately & all the ropes had been secured, everyone was moving, doing what they had been instructed to do. Dr Brothers was constantly monitoring everything that was being done making sure that safety came first for both the helpers and the giraffe.

The giraffe stood up and it was time for him to be guided into the trailer, which should have been a fairly uncomplicated procedure, but alas our adventure was just beginning! Not only had the giraffe not read the manual but his GPS was also not working and as hard as everyone worked to guide the giraffe onto the trailer, he just would not go on. It was then that we realised that the one ear plug had come out, add to this that we are working in a smaller space than usual and you have yourself a complicated procedure.

Dr Brothers was like the puppet master and we were like the puppets, following his every instruction, but despite best efforts we could not get our friend loaded. Rebecca Wood the veterinary nurse also seemed to know just what to do at the right time, and the two of them worked together like a well oiled machine, making sure that all went well.

The saying goes stubborn as a mule, well I don’t think they had ever met this giraffe.

After quite a lengthy period of time and failed attempts at getting him loaded in the trailer,

Dr Brothers made a decision to call off the procedure, as he was worried that the giraffe would get too stressed and this could be potentially fatal.

Once all the ropes and blindfold were taken off he was released, and went off to find the herd.

We might not have accomplished what we set out to do, but it really was a great adventure and it made me realise how precious our wildlife is, and just how important the work is that Brothers Safaris does.

Brothers Safaris supports rhino day.

Rhino's do not have a voice - so use yours! We are definitely using ours, to show support for these precious creatures! What people are doing to these animals is shocking, sad and so disappointing - especially that we as humans should be protecting these animals. Brothers Safaris are definitely showing its support for World Rhino day.



For more information or to show your support go to: http://www.rhinoconservation.org/2010/09/21/join-together-for-world-rhino-day-september-22/