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