We headed to a farm only about 30 minutes away to dart and treat a Cape Buffalo with an abscess on her abdomen. I was impressed that anyone even knew she had the injury! So let me give those of you at home some frame of reference. Imagine yourself in an area of land the size of your township. Remove all but 1 house, and there is only 1 paved road along one side. The remainder is filled with knee-high grass, scrub bushes and trees, thousands of birds and animals. The area is criss-crossed with rough 2-tracks that are really just where someone has driven a few times in the past. Somewhere out here, there is a single animal with an injury underneath her belly. You have to find her without having unfortunate encounters with any thorns, horns or carnivores, successfully drop her with a dart, explore and treat her wound before she wakes up, and get her back on her feet. This is what we were doing this morning as soon as it was daylight. It started off chilly again, but quickly warmed to another clear, sunny, perfect day.
Once more we crowded into the back of a little white pickup, this time along with a weimareiner, a spare tire, a pitchfork and a few bags of silage. The wind was brisk, so I sat down on the spare tire behind the cab and watched. We weren't out very far when we came upon a group of 8 giraffe, adults and young. They were browsing the trees and bushes, and just looked at us as we drove by. We continued on, driving along narrow red-dirt tracks, over humps and rocks. As we came around a corner, there stood 4 rhino! They came closer to the truck and eyed us with interest; we didn't stay to see what they wanted! We saw impala, sable, bushbuck, waterbuck but no buffalo. AFter looping back to our starting point, we went out again, passing the giraffe group again, then a mother and baby rhino, and a mother and baby giraffe. We also got stuck in the mud and set a land-speed record for going about 40 mph down a rough track while standing in a pickup.
Two of the group of rhinos
3 rhinos checking us out. Note that the horns are cut short--this prevents their being poached, since poachers only value the horn.
A curious rhino
At last, we sighted a huge herd of Cape Buffalo. They immediately started running away, making an immense cloud of dust. We circled the herd slowly as it split, moved, re-formed, split again. The owner and driver had binoculars to help spot; his task is to spot the affected animal and line up the truck to give Rita the shot. After a driver change, we returned to the herd and circled them several times. Finally, the affected cow was found, and, as usual, Rita hit it. The entire herd ran, leaving us in the dust as we tried to track the darted cow. We followed a section of the herd for about 10 minutes, and eventually the darted cow approached us coming up the track. She lay down (of course, on the side with the abscess) and we got to work. Rolling her body while holding her head higher than her rumen with her nose aimed downward was a trick, and we discovered that buffalo heads are HEAVY!The wound was soiled and crusted, so we scrubbed and flushed it. Fortunately, it had already drained out most of the pus, and it did not enter the abdominal cavity, so she should recover well. After vitamins, antibiotics and anti-parasitic medications, she was given a reversal drug and soon stood up and walked away back to the herd.
Tranquilized but not yet down: Cape buffalo cow with an abscess
She's a good-sized girl!
With a nice horn spread
Luke is supporting her (very heavy) head so that fluid from her rumen does not leak up into her mouth and get into her lungs.
Rita investigates the wound as Allyssa looks on
Allyssa takes a look
Rebecca checks it out
And Harley learns a new appreciation for smelly pus.
Fortunately the wound did not extend into the abdomen; it really was skin-deep.
So after cleaning it and flushing out the debris, she should recover nicely!
Finishing up treatment
On the way out, I got distracted by some unusual succulents growing around the gate cottage.
The sun shone through their leaves and gave an amazing effect!
And I need to look up this flower--Crape Myrtle, perhaps???
After finishing with the Cape Buffalo cow, we stopped at another giant baobab tree. This one is still standing, and is well over 2000 years old. Just think, this tree was alive and growing at the time of Christ! And we checked it out thoroughlyl!
The giant baobab tree. Yes, those are actual students standing there!
And climbing inside. All 6 students fit inside at once!
This may help with size comparison
This is a really big tree!
Students get a closer look
The bark feels almost like very smooth concrete, and is wrinkled and folded and cool to the touch. It feels at once too solid to be living, yet very alive.
After a brief stop back at the lodge to change into shorts, we went to visit Jessica. The hippo. Not the one who makes our trip happen. This Jessica is much, much bigger! Jessica the Hippo was orphaned in a flood in 2001 as a newborn. This couple rescued and handraised her, and although she is completely free to come and go as she pleases, she comes to their floating dock to eat, and sleeps on a mattress on their back porch. She used to sleep in the house, but she has gotten too wide for the door! For more information on Jessica (and it is a fascinating story), see her website and/or watch a short video about her story. Students fed her corn, tea from a bottle, and kissed her! She also has a companion, a younger male named Ritchie, who came over looking for his share of attention.
When we arrived, Jessica was in the river.
And Ritchie was sunbathing on the bank.
Jessica soon joined us on the nearer side of the dock, resting and keeping an eye on us in case we were planning to feed her. We watched her nostrils open and close, which allows her to graze underwater. She can hold her breath for several minutes. She doesn't look all that big in this photo, because she is mostly submerged.
Allyssa petting Jessica. She agreed that it felt very surreal to be touching the face of the most dangerous animal in Africa!
Rebecca gives Jessica some love.
Sami checks out a hippo mouth.
Danielle pets Jessica while giving her a bottle of tea.
...and a kiss!
Sami smooching a hippo
Rebecca going in for the kiss
Allyssa getting up close and personal
Luke is uncertain whether he is allowed to kiss Jessica, as she does not tolerate grown men in her face.
Ritchie wants attention, too!
He has been watching Jessica. Maybe if he opens his mouth, someone will toss some food in!
Rebecca and Ritchie
Danielle
Harley seems to like her new friend
Group love for Ritchie from Vet Science
Danielle mugging and hugging
Luke giving Jessica a foot massage. Not on her feet. With his feet!
Dani takes her turn
And Rebecca
And Harley--she was smiling in the next photo, but this one was priceless!
Who knew that hippo feet look like this?!
Hugging Ritchie good-bye!
Off to bed; we have to leave at 5:30 am tomorrow to go with Rita to dart 30 Cape Buffalo in Kruger National Park. Apparently they will have a helicopter up, but won't allow Rita to dart from the air, which seems inefficient, but will for sure be interesting! We will leave there by 2:00 to go horseback riding. It will be the same people as last year, at their new property. They had such nice horses and were so much fun, I can't wait! I did bring my own helmet this year, as they were short of huge sizes last year.
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