Tuesday ,Day 2

We didn't leave until 6:30 this morning and managed to meet Rita right at the farm gate. We were first going to dart several sable antelope for transport. There was recently a wildlife auction, so many animals are being moved after being purchased. We began with 3 Sable Antelope bulls, darted and driven in the trucks up to the transport trailer. They had also loaded several others from the boma (pen) into 2 huge trailers.

Luke in the trailer, holding up his end of an eland

Believe it or not, there are 3 students and an antelope in this tiny space!

Rebecca and Harley working with an antelope in the trailer

Large bull Sable antelope. He has had black plastic tubes fused onto his horns to protect their valuable tips, as well as other animals. The protectors were removed and horns measured to ensure that they met the buyer's specifications.

While waiting for a truck to return, Harley, Sami and Rebecca amuse themselves with an ant lion.

So many sables!

We went back and darted 3 cows with calves at their sides for transfer to their new owners. You can see a group of calves in the background, and a big dark bull in the background. After getting them to the trailers, we moved again to another camp on the same property, and darted 3 golden wildebeast! These were moved into the boma to be moved soon. I didn't even know that wildebeast came in other colors, but these were truly golden with white stripes.

Next, we moved to another camp to dart an injured zebra. It had been caught in a wire snare around its front foot. They were able to remove the snare, treat the wound, and recover the zebra. Its herd mates gathered close around and watched the recovery carefully.

Wire snare around the coronary band of an adult female zebra

Removing the snare. Note Rita's bracelet. It is made from the wire from removed snares, and their sale funds a non-profit group working to prevent snare injuries.

Cleaning the wound

Much better. This wound cannot be stitched as the stitches would just pull through.

She is waking up

while her friends gather round. They let us get very close!

And one last mission to dart 3 more cows with calves at side. Shadows are lengthening and we are getting tired and hungry,

Baby sable antelope!

We arrived home to the amazing aroma of pumpkin fritters! Supper was wonderful as always, starting with butternut soup, and then chicken over brown rice with the favorite pumpkin (actually butternut squash) fritters! Once we ate as much as we could hold, we ajourned to pack tomorrow's lunches and get some sleep! Tomorrow is a long day far from the lodge--we leave at 5:00 am! I hope to have more time to update the blog--for tonight, I'm going to update my SLEEP!