Today was planned around Moholoholo Rehabilitation Centre and then a visit to a cheetah breeding facility.  First, though, we had to feed our new addition the baby giraffe.  Since I'd had an attempt to feed her last night, I just stood by while others took their turns.  She is, however, extremely friendly and wanting contact so we all got to cuddle a bit and play with her.  It's so cool to see a newborn that's bigger than I am...

We got to the rehabber fairly early, and received a talk from one of the workers there about how close to a crash the ecosystem is and some of the things that can be done to help.  They have a lot of education animals here, but mostly if they can't re-release something it'll probably end up getting put down.  Unless it's rare/endangered, this makes sense since it's really no kind of life for the animal... the education ones do serve an important ambassador role, so I can see keeping them on.

We met quite a few cool critters, including a yellow-billed kite (medium sized hawk) who thinks she's human and likes to sit on hats and hands.  There were also a ton of rock hyrax (think slightly smaller but fat groundhogs) and a baby warthog who's basically tame and cuddly.  We got to feed some of the vultures there too, which was a pretty neat experience.  Visiting around the place included the Martial Eagle, the largest African species that'll sometimes take lambs away, some lions, a hyena, wild dogs, a leopard and some cheetahs.  We also saw a pair of honey badgers.  They're little things, about skunk-badger size, but our tour guide said he'd seen them go after lions and elephants in the wild. They're entirely fearless and vicious when they feel like it.   We also met a cheetah who was partly raised as a pet and fed a poor diet, so her growth was a bit stunted.  However, she was extremely social. We went in the pen with her and she was all purrs and hand-licking, a gorgeous animal.

After the rehabber, we went to a cheetah breeding facility.  They have other animals too, but the cheetahs were the main reason they started up and comprise the bulk of their population.  Nothing seen from a car could really compare to the up close and personal meeting at the rehabber, so this sorta lost some of its thrill.  We did get closer to some wild dogs, though, and saw a beautiful little sable calf with its parents.  The King cheetahs were pretty neat too, though it turns out that they aren't an endangered subspecies but a simple recessive colour mutation of the standard critter.

After the rehabber, we came back home.  Tonight will be spent organizing who gets driven where and when in the morning, offloading our cameras onto Geran's computer so he can make us DVD's with everyones photos, and then most of the group will probably be getting drunk.  I'll be going for sleep, since I know I won't be getting much on the plane... I'll land in the states around 10:30 AM Sunday morning in Chicago. Once I locate an outlet to plug in my phone, I'll call around and let y'all know I'm home ok.  I'm kinda looking forward to getting a lot more sleep once there, and the zoo work should be cool.... but there's also part of me that'd love to stay here all summer, no matter how early the days and how hard the work.  Maybe sometime in the future, though... Later,

-P

Today was our trip to Kruger National Park.  We woke up early waiting to hear word of a sick young giraffe on a nearby farm.  However, this turned into (yet another :p) lesson of the "hurry up and wait" philosophy of game capture. They never could find the little bugger, so we just shrugged and headed off to the park.  It's roughly the size of Israel and home to a ton of various species, with no hunting and little enough direct interaction with the critters.

We started off pretty quickly, with a bunch of vervet monkeys at the gate, a family of warthog and a young and lonely looking bull elephant along the road. Things slowed down a bit after that, mainly featuring impala and wildebeest with the odd zebra mixed in.  We commented on how quickly we ended up jaded with some wildlife... seeing zebra out of the car is so much less thrilling once you've jumped on top of one to keep it from waking up, or had it kick you or a trailer roll away with you and the zebra in it.  Some giraffe wandered by too, but we pretty much arrived at the first rest stop wondering where all the critters had gone. 

Pretty soon after, we picked things up a bit.  We came to a bridge and a troop of baboons playing in the water.  There were also three nice looking Waterbuck on the far side, and a few steenbuck not too far away once we were over the bridge.  Weird little things, steenbuck are the only antelope that will mate for life and only hang out in a paired group. We also started seeing some cool birds, like ground hornbills and a pretty critter called a lilac breasted roller.  The next rest stop was lunch time, which turned out to be a lot more interesting than just a ham and cheese sandwich.

The place where we stopped was a nice restaurant/store/museum complex along a river.  Up and downstream, we could see individual elephant getting a drink.  The pavilions by the restaurant were also home to quite a number of epauletted fruitbats.  Really cute lil' dudes, they're somewhere between our normal little bats and the Aussie flying foxes in size.  They seemed totally oblivious to people eating lunch around the edges of their pavilion  (obviously no tables in the middle... guano's not that good for you).

After lunch, we started seeing some really cool stuff.  We saw, across the river, a bull elephant about to throw down with a large rhino. The elephant was coming towards the water, and the rhino was heading up the bank.  Rhino tossed his head and took a step and the elephant leapt back.  The elephant regrouped and charged a few steps, and the rhino stepped back quickly.  At that point, they had an uneasy staredown for a few minutes.  Eventually, they both seemed to shrug and wander off in opposite directions as if to say "I could totally take you, but I just don't feel like it right now"

After that, we ran across a large troop of baboons in the roadway.  Some of them had babies dangling on their backs or tails, and some of the older babies were chasing each other up and down trees by the roadside.  It was a lot of fun to watch them for a while before moving on.  We also saw a couple of kudu who pretty much  posed for us.  Very striking animals.

The main event of the day came near the end.  We pulled up alongside a dam (lake) that contained quite a number of hippo, doing all the things hippo do.  They were swimming, roaring, snorting, showing off their teeth and generally having a good old time.  We saw a couple of tiny (well... relatively.) babies as well, along with some big birds (grey heron, some sort of stork) by the edges.  There were also plenty of crocs sunning themselves and a few giraffe came down to drink, along with a herd of impala.  Hippos were one of the last things on my to-see list, so that was a lot of fun especially considering that I'd eaten hippo but not seen one yet.

On the way out, we spotted a lioness in the distance!  Too far for really good photos, she was gorgeous through the binoculars and rounded off the day pretty nicely. Louie got us to the gate at 5:29 (they close and start fining you at 5:30) and we headed home.

Quickly running through dinner, we drove up the hill at the farm to meet our new arrival: a four day old orphaned baby giraffe.  The group decided that because of my birthday today and An's tomorrow, we should be the ones to feed her.  She was in a trailer for the night, so it was a bit of climbing and reaching... she also isn't very bright, so I wasn't able to get her to drink much.  An had slightly better luck, but that also involved Johan climbing in the trailer with the giraffe and trying to hold her head so she had to take the bottle.  She is adorable, though, and seeing her out of the trailer in the boma tomorrow should be a lot of fun since she should be a lot more agreeable in those conditions. 

So, only one day left and then more flying than I care to think about... I really don't want to leave yet.  There's so much to do... I should have scheduled the extra week to see more of this place, but I am kinda looking forward to getting home and sleeping for three days :p  Until later,

-Pat

Our day started early, at Mauricedale. It's the largest breeding farm for wildlife in the Southern Hemisphere, and we saw exactly why later on.  We were greeted on the drive in by several ostrich, and zebra mingling with tame horses wandering around on the lawns.  Our mission, already accepted whether we liked it or not, was to go into the "garden" (an area larger than some sports stadiums) and retrieve 1 male and three female soenie (pronounced sue-knee).  The plan was to set up a net starting at a fence on one side, go up to the top area and run down screaming to drive the critters into the net.  Understand, now, that these are micro-antelope.  They're little spiky things about the size of a young beagle.

Our first pass was ok.  Despite letting through a couple fast females, we caught our buck on the first go.  This, however, was the only soenie we'd have in the nets for about the next five hours.  We managed to catch a red duiker (dike-er), but that was not the mini-lope we were after, so he wandered off freaked out and free.  We eventually moved the net to another area, but that didn't help any more than in the first spot.  Finally, we started isolating small areas of brush with soenie in them that the net could go all the way around.  We quickly caught one... and had to let it go, as it was a pregnant female and no livestock operation in their right mind sells a proven breeder when you can grab a young untested one and unload it.  We did eventually catch the last two, but only after nabbing another scared little male and a  lot of frustration.

Thoroughly fed up with junior sized antelope, we moved up to the major leagues after lunch.  A Roan bull with a broken leg needed a new cast.  Roan are the second largest species of antelope, behind only eland, and this boy was full grown.  I'm a lousy estimator, but he was an easy 350 pounds and probably more.  You also can't blindfold a roan, which is unfortunate because it usually calms down everything except some sable.  Roan just go insane when they can't see, though.  This guy took his time going down, and we dashed in as always.  Justin, Mauricedale's live-in fulltime vet, was supervising as we got everything underway.  I got to put in the catheter, the first one I've ever done, which was a really cool experience. 

So, we were set up and running smoothly.  Then they fired up the generator so they could use a grinder to cut off the cast, and our boy went crazy.  Despite being doped to the gills on M99, he basically shook off four people who were devoting their full attention to his horns and almost got up.  He threw the catheter connection too, so his ear was bleeding freely while fluids ran into the dirt.  A few minutes and a lot of valium later, we  managed to resume with the generator pulled away at max distance for the cords involved.  After about half a pharmacy of valium and ketamine top-ups, they got the cast off and scrubbed the leg for the new one.  Louie basically got us a home depot model cast, with a length of PVC and some clamps to secure it to a standard large animal leg splint.  Much cheaper than the fancy human style thing they'd used before, and very effective.  Once that was on, we cleaned up and fled. 

The drive out from his pen through their big feeding grounds was incredible.  We saw literally hundreds of animals, including a ton of white rhino (and adorable babies) warthogs and piglets, sable, oryx, eland, ostrich... it's an unbelievable place.  We even dropped in on a recently captured black rhino (much rarer than white) and her calf on the way out before calling it a day.

We started Tuesday very early, heading off to a farm to try and catch some zebra in an area where they liked to wander into a fenced zone.  Of course, this night, they weren't in there.  So we found them in a field besides some wildebeest and blesbuck.  Louie, Johan, and the owner of the place (a Macadamia nut plantation) started shooting.  Louie and the owner darted theirs immediately, while Johan was a bit delayed.  We  watched the one mare stagger and go down, and then jumped on her to blindfold and such while waiting for the stallion, who took forever.  Meanwhile, Johan darted his with an unbelievably lucky shot.  The dart passed totally under her belly, but she stepped forward just at the right instant and it hit the inside of her opposite leg. With M99 in the dart, that's plenty good enough. 

We loaded up the first mare and headed back towards the trailer, parked up near the guys house.  As we were putting her in the trailer, it started sliding back directly towards the bakkie.  So five of us and a zebra who's starting to wake up in a trailer with nothing to stop it but our truck.... Johan managed to jump out and jam some equipment against the wheels, stopping us just in time.  We left the mare in the trailer with two folks to watch her breathing, and headed out to get the other mare.  She'd fallen in a ditch, a lousy location to get her out of.  Also, the idiot in my previous entry was on her and again trying to give orders despite the presence of actual professionals, so that was no help either.  Meanwhile, the owner and Louie were trying to dart the two foals and not having too much luck.  One got hit, but waited so long while we were doing the adults that he jumped up, shook off Bryant and Jess, and ran away.  The other just managed to have two darts bounce off him without discharging, crazy lucky.

We got the mare out of the ditch, took her up to the trailer, and maneuvered her in beside her buddy.  The stallion was starting to wake up by the time we got back, including a lunge forward that had about six of us diving on his legs to hold him down.  Johan topped him up with M99 and a touch of ketamine (not great in equids, but serviceable) so that he was feelin' pretty good when we did get him on the truck and into the trailer.  Once there, we reversed all three adults so we could just leave them when trying to hunt down the babies and not worry about their breathing.  Once again, bossy idiot nearly screwed things up when Johan was saying to just give the injection in the muscle and she was going "no no no, my friend can get it in the vein, let her try"... of course, she never did get it in the vein and ended up just wasting our time and putting someone in more danger in close quarters with a rapidly-waking-up zebra.

The babies were easier in that they were lighter, but that was about it.  Once Louie finally redarted the one who'd jumped up, we headed over to her.  As we got there, she rolled over and kicked out... she clipped my shoulder at full extension.  Very lucky, cause if I'd been about a foot closer, my shoulder would have been quite a mess.  As is, it was so light a touch I doubt it'll even bruise.  Piling on her, we held her legs for dear life as we got her in the bakkie and went for the other baby.  She was, at least, easier to hold than the adults.  Earlier we'd had one person hauling back with all their weight on one leg and me pushing it up from the other side and the stallion still nearly clipped Johan.   Tough critters, to be sure, nothing like the sissies normal horses are. (Yes, I know normal horses are tough too, but with what we put them through any thoroughbred would colic and die with 1/10th that stress).

SO.  With the babies in the truck and a bunch of awake adults in the trailer, we had an issue.  Louie climbed up on top of the trailer and poked the adults until they all crammed into the forward section, and then dropped a door down from the roof.  The babies went in the back, and we were off to a Wildlife Estate to deliver them.  Basically, it's a gated community that has wild critters running around with specific rules like no pets so that people who want to live among wildlife can do so.  Bloody stupid idea to me, given that these folks have no idea what the zebra are going to do to their gardens, but there it is.  After the delivery, it was back to the farm.

The afternoon featured one of the Mpumalanga parks board guys, Chris, who we'd hung out with at Ohrigstad for the buffalo capture.  He gave us an excellent talk on South African snakes (and snakes in general)  before plopping some critters on the table to look at.  We saw a puff adder, a common egg eater (awesome lil' dude), a highly offended Snouted Cobra (formerly Egyptian cobra, recently changed), a freshly (yesterday) caught black mamba and a confiscated red tail boa which was illegally imported.  There's a ton of reptile work and research to be done here... If I come back some time for an internship or something, I'd love to contact Chris and see what there is to do in that area, possibly for a Masters in something.  That's all for the future, though.  For now, it's dinner time.  Catcha later,

-P

The day started early in the bakkie (pickup truck, pronounced bucky).  We all piled in while Louie and Johan went off to dart the herd bull wildebeest on Cobus's farm.  The idea was to take him with us when we went later to move a Nyala, and leave the wildebeest at the other farm.  As it turned out, neither of those things happened.  Louie and Johan approached the herd twice, and both times they were sighted or winded and the critters tore off into tougher areas.  Johan later told us that they'd tried just about everything to get that bull, but would have to wait until they started feeding the animals for the winter to nab him.  So, critters win one.

Next was a call to a neighbouring farm for a Kudu, the largest of the antelope (and, oddly, the best jumpers. Fences just can't hold them) who had wire wrapped around his horns.  That, however, was the only thing wrong with him. So when he scented Louie and the other guys approaching, he disappeared just like the wildebeest. Animals 2, us 0.

Next stop was to move a Nyala, a mid sized antelope.  The farm was over the mountains from Cobus's place and we were going to take the Nyala buck up to the top of the mountain, where the nyala girls were hanging out.  We  never laid eyes on him, driving around with the owner and the bakkie, but we did see plenty of impala and a bushbuck.  We also saw the most incredible view we've had here yet up at the lodge at the top of the mountain.  Just an unbelievable vista down the valley and other mountains from this guy's place.  Apparently he's a big shot accountant who owns a firm and split the land price with 5 other people, each of whom have houses there.  The pictures will blow you away.  On the way out of his place, we passed a gorgeous male/female pair of kudu by the roadside, as if they were just posing for us.  That was cool.  The vehicle in front also managed to see a small black mamba, but he was gone when we got there which was a terrible shame... I really want to see something like that in the wild.  End result: Animals 3, Us 0.

Our last stop of the day was at a farm that raises Sable, large straight or curved horned antelope.  Louie and Johan darted a pair of them in a big fenced area, and we dashed in to get them on the trucks and back to the trailer for transport.  They are ridiculously strong in the head/neck area.  We had two guys, myself and the only other guy in the group, holding one horn apiece and another student holding the base of the horns, and the big buck still nearly jerked away from us.  It was cool and exciting, perhaps a bit more than it should have been, because one girl in the group has a severe superiority complex and keeps trying to order people while not paying enough attention to her own responsibilities.  Or, alternatively, trying to take all the cool procedures for herself while telling people how it has to be.  She very nearly got one of our KSU people speared in the face, twice, because she was arrogant enough to refuse help on the horns (with only one other person) AND was trying to order who gave what shots over the orders of Louie and Johan.  If it comes to a situation where I'm on an animal with her, I think I'm just going to walk away because there's no way I'm letting myself get injured for some idiot with a big head.  And that's basically what she is, because she's nowhere near as competent as she believes.  Anyhow.

In the end, we got the sable loaded up and headed for home.  Our one victory ended up feeling pretty good, because they're very cool animals and it was a tough thing to get them controlled as we did.  So, animals 3 and we finally get on the board with 1

Sunday was our day to be relatively relaxed from the crazy pace that game capture tends to set.  We had breakfast at the advanced  hour of 8:30 and then headed out to see what we could see.  Our first stop was at a small town that's basically an enclave for artists and other like minded folks. It was in SA's wild horse country, so we got to see a few of those roaming the streets too.  It was a really nice little place, with plenty of crafts shops and bed/breakfasts centered on the horses.  Sadly, there wasn't any thing like the souvenirs from the roadside stand we'd seen the week before.  As it turns out, all of those carvings and such actually were handmade... I thought they were just presented that way to dupe tourists.  If I'd known, I'd have gotten a lot more stuff there than I did.  Hopefully there'll be another shot at something along those lines, cause I'd like to bring some stuff home for more people.

After the artist town, it was a quick drive of about 10 minutes to the stables where we were going for a trail ride.  Everyone else had horses with interesting African names, but my boy was named Gambit.  Nothing to hold against him, though, since he was generally pretty agreeable besides trying to snap at one of the other horses.  He's about 16 and a crossbreed, captured wild when he was about 3 years old.  These folks tend to just let their horses loose in the area and call them in when they're needed.  Saves a lot on feed and stable space, but also makes it easier for thieves to steal the critters.

So we went out on our trail ride, about a dozen of us, through the largest man-made forest in the world.  A timber and pulp area, there is over 100 kilometers of pine trees there which started to be planted in the early 1800's.  It was a beautiful setting, especially the couple times when we broke out of the pines and saw some really nice overlooks.  We also had a baboon or two run across our trail, but Gambit was too bent on following the others for me to be able to both stop him AND take a good picture.  Still, it's neat to have seen them and handy that they're afraid of horses. The saddle was a modified Western saddle, after an old army model that they called a McClaren.  Basically, instead of a horn it had a rounded bulge on the front with a rectangular hole through it.  While it might be terrible form, I like that because it lets me canter and feel a lot more comfortable than in the English saddles.  Anyway, we rode for about an hour and a half, and saw some neat sites and generally had a great time with the animals.

After that, we headed towards home with a slight halt for a flat tire, before continuing to Sudwala caves.  The second largest cave system in SA, it was interesting in a historical sense and also because there were some neat formations.  I could swear the tour guide was hopped up on something, though... terrifyingly peppy.  Even Geran and Louie apologized for her afterwards.  Listening to Louie's ongoing cursing about being in a cave that could have an earthquake and kill him at any moment was pretty entertaining, especially since we've easily been able to pick up on some of their favourite words in Afrikaans.  After the caves, we pretty much went home to pack it in for the night since we had an early morning planned for Monday.

Dr. Leon Prozesky came out from the veterinary faculty in Pretoria to discuss various bits of wildlife pathology and some case studies with us.  We spoke a lot about forensic pathology and things that could eventually end in court cases or, in the case of a lot of expensive animals, insurance settlements.

There was also a necropsy later in the afternoon.  Louie, one of our guides/Cobus's employees, used to be a professional hunter and guide before coming to work in conservation, which he vastly prefers.  So he shot an impala since they have too many on the farm here and we had a go at it.  I hung back and let other people who were interested do it, because it's possible the only thing MORE boring to me in vet med than necrospy is dermatology.  I just stop caring about things after they're dead... there's nothing more I can do about it, so I'll let the pathologists sort out why it's dead while I move on to the next living critter.

After that, we went into town and split up to two laundromats to wash our horribly messy stuff, especially the clothes from the boma building.  When that was finished, we ended up at Stefano's, an Italian place where the owners are personal friends of Cobus and his wife.  It was a great meal and a lot of fun to sit around and chat in that setting, as opposed to our usual campfire.  Of course, we still had the campfire when we got back to the farm, heading to bed around 2 AM (for me, but there were still others around as I left.)

Today, we're going to a place where we'll ride some horses out to see South Africa's last wild horses.  And then we're going to hit a local cave system, the second largest in the country.  It's kind of a laid back touristy day before we start up chasing and drugging stuff again tomorrow.  Apparently there's good local flavour in the souvenirs around there too, so that might be cool.  I had originally thought all the stuff by the side of the road was mass produced some place and shipped out there to sucker dumb tourists, but it turns out that the people are just that consistent in what they make.  It's all hand made by the men and the wives sit out along the road or in the stands and sell it.  They're very competitive and rather insistent too... you almost feel bad walking away from one when another is offering you a better price, especially since in Rand it's probably not that much of a difference. 

Anyway, it's about breakfast time so I'm going to run off and eat before the riding.  Later,

-P

But she was nice, and gave it back.  All three times.  Anyhow, we left Ohrigstad after packing up the camping gear and saying good bye to our adoring Peanut. We headed up the road to a place where they collect elephants who were destined to be culled (overpopulation is a huge issue) and train them for education and anti-poaching operations.  It turns out that elephants smell much, much better than dogs when tracking and can track over and through water.  They also offer a much higher vantage point for officers riding them, and can generally scare the hell out of poachers on the ground.

We were there for Gumbo (pronounced GOM-boo) a young bull who arrived there after spending three days with his leg caught in a steel lion snare.  The last course of students spent a lot of time treating him, but we only needed to change his bandage and clean the wound this one last time.  It was a pretty cool deal, darting him with M99 (etorphine, vet nerds) and rushing in to get a line in, get pulse-ox going (my job, had to scrape out an area on his ear with a scalpel first) and get everything going so he was down for as short a time as possible.  This went really well, and ended with him up and woozy as we went for lunch. 

After lunch, we got a talk about elephants and their population issues and a demo of their training.  We all got to sit on and feed them, and they showed us their scent abilities with a hat game.  Three of us who had hats tossed them down on the ground and shuffled ourselves about.  An elephant who'd had her back turned (Mitwah was her name) came over and picked one up. She held it level with our chests giving each of us a sniff in turn, before pushing it at the head of the person it belonged to.  She was a bit confused the first time, so we repeated it and she had much better success (despite standing on my hat for a short time). A trio of warthogs wandered past as we were there, adding another cool element to that part of the trip.

We then took the long drive back to Nelspruit, and the farm sure looked good as we pulled up.  Crouton, the bouncy gray/white cat, chased me up the path towards the dorm area and climbed a tree to give me his leopard impression.  Fun lil' dude. 

So, the trip to Ohrigstad was thrilling, terrifying and generally cool... but there is some disappointment over the lack of rhino work.  They're going to try to get it in later this trip, but it may cost us our outing to Kruger park.  Oh well, I'll just have to come back then :p

Tomorrow is pathology day.  A doctor from Pretoria is here with some samples we took from the crocs earlier in the week, and some general path lectures.  Sunday, we're taking a horseback trip to see some wild horses and then a drive/scenic tour along the Great Escarpment.  It's our day off before getting back to drugging and dragging things on Monday.

We had a nifty stop in the mountains between Ohrigstad and the elephants, at a roadside stand with some cool souvenir options. Gotta keep things light, though, since I don't want my bag to be overweight!  For now, I'm off to get a shower and write this stuff up in my actual notebook.  Catcha later,

-P

We went out on a two day trip with our main goal being to capture 10 Cape Buffalo, the number 1 killer of hunters in South Africa, so they could be sent to another reserve to improve genetic diversity.  We were also going to microchip some rhino, but as it turned out that was not meant to be.

We arrived at Ohrigstad Reserve and were greeted by members of the Mpumalanga district wildlife capture team, complete with mascot: the feared Bush Dachsund, a four month old pup named Peanut who went everywhere with us.  We spent the first day building our Boma, a giant funnel shaped structure of plastic curtains and wire leading into a steel crush and a ramp where we parked the transport truck.  The idea is that a helicopter herds the buffalo in, and then we run across with the curtains to seal it behind them.  They then enter with trucks (and this time, a horse... Louie was dead set on that) and get the buffalo into the far end.  Basically, things went wrong from the start. 

Only 7 of our buffalo actually entered the boma, with the others running up the hill behind it.  We sealed them off ok, but then the far curtain started collapsing and those of us on the downhill slope had to run over and cover that.  I ended up back on the downhill, alone, holding the curtain shut so one of the local guys could go in and help with the actual herding.  As my curtain started to fall, I found myself watching 7 upset buffalo from about 10 meters away, hoping they wouldn't notice my curtains slight gap.  Just then, the guy who I'd replaced, Jeffery, drove his truck in between me and the buffalo, making him my hero for the weekend.  Suffice it to say that after much swearing and trouble, and Louie's horse getting driven off by a pissed off bull, they got the critters down beyond the second curtain, where Cobus closed them in. 

They were all the way into the crush, finally.  BUT... no one was manning the gate.  You see, someone had the brilliant idea to take the helo and dart the three original escapees.  So they'd driven off to track them down and left the crucial end unmanned.  The buffalo caught on pretty quick, and were out under the net in a flash.  On the upside, at least they never got past us... it was the highly experienced professionals who blew it.

The end result was that a truck took all the students except three of us (one with a hurt ankle, me and another helping with the boma repair) and dragged the first three darted ones out of the bush into the trucks. We took a break for lunch, and the helicopter went out and Ertjis (sounds like ack eese) shot the last 7.  6 went down in a convenient lump in one area, while one bull stumbled down the slope a ways.  We drove out, jumped off the trucks and blindfolded them.  One by one, we rolled them onto stretchers and the crane truck lifted them up and into the transport container.

Next problem: the container only had room for five of them.  So we had to put the last two into the buckies, pickup trucks.  The crane worked for one, but the big truck couldn't get to the last bull.  We ended up physically shoving a 1200 pound buffalo into the back of a pickup, using the tailgate as a ramp. 

That was the end of our buffalo adventure, which was pretty cool in the end.  Some of us were also given helicopter rides, which were awesome.  However, the helicopter developed a malfunction of some kind and had to go back to Pretoria for service, thus ruining our chances of microchipping the rhino on this trip.  A lot of folks were bummed about that, and the fact that only six of us got helo rides in the end.  We spent the rest of the day in town getting supplies and then breaking down the boma before another fun night of BS around the campfire.  And thus ended Thursday.

We started off the day with a lecture about the various animals we may/will see while we're here.  A lot that we aren't going to work with directly will show up in Kruger while we're there, so it's handy to know ahead of time what to call them and what their habits may be.  Our lecture was emphasized by Gladys, the friendly ostrich (she's blind in one eye and has adopted a worker here as her boyfriend... follows him around, sleeps outside his house, etc.).  She wandered past the open-air lecture room while eating and poked her head in.  Afterwards, she came around by the eating area and posed for pictures.  She's very approachable and seems to like contact.  As it turns out, an ostrich neck feels like rubbing a warm fleece.

After our chat with Gladys we wandered over to the closest field and learned all about loading darts and the various types of guns they have here.  We practiced loading/charging the darts with water and firing at a 20 meter target, and then a 40 meter.  It was challenging, not least because Nimush (the husky pup, for those of you just joining in. It's NEE-moosh.) kept chasing Patricia (the angry ostrich) who would run for a second and then realize "I'm a giant-ass angry bird" and turn around to chase the dog instead.  Entertaining, but bad for the aim.

When we were done shooting, it was lunch time and then off to the crocodile farm who'd brought us the babies the previous day.   Sadly, our resurrected baby kicked off over night, so we only had three to take on the hour drive back with us.  We got a great tour of the farm, everything from the new babies up to the 40 year old giant breeders.  Nile crocodiles are apparently the second best in the industry.   Aussie saltwater crocs have smaller scales, so they can be grown to a larger size before culling and thereby produce more leather per animal (if scales are too big, they're not easily useable and no one wants that.)   So the croc farms have also pretty much put poachers out of business, meaning that wild populations have (ironically) rebounded because thousands of their relatives are being raised to be slaughtered in their place.

And that is pretty much the day.  We have some videos to watch after dinner tonight and a bit more lecturing about what we'll be doing in the park the next two days.  Tomorrow, we head out on a 3 hour drive to a game park where we'll be camping two nights.  So, you won't hear anymore from me until at least Friday night.  Tomorrow will be spent basically in hard labour, building the capture boma for the cape buffalo we're going after on Thursday.   I'm not sure if there's anything besides the buffalo on the schedule Thursday, but I think Gumbo the wounded elephant is our main target on Friday before we get back here.  It should be an excellent outing in general.  Not REAL camping, since they'll have electricity and mattresses for under the sleeping bags, but that's probably just as well since we'll be busting our butts all day.  I'll try to catch up with y'all when I get back Friday!  Till then,

-p