Game Capture!

Sedated sable in the bucky

Tersius with the sedated sable

Typical sedated Nyala style- running up to you

Alysha reversing into the ear vein

Today was the big day, finally real game capture had arrived! We got up early and were at the farm for 6 o'clock. You must do game capture early to beat the heat of the day as the animals do not fair well, so 6 it was. We got our drugs and darts organized for the catching. Chris came out with us instead of Pierre as he was busy catching rhinos which had escaped overnight. They had figured out how to open the electric gate and then roamed around. We headed out in the back of the bucky with Tertius driving and Chris setting up the gun. The animals we were going to dart were in very large pens, over 100 acres and running around. There were only 2 main roads in this large enclosure, and animals being animals made it as difficult as possible to catch them. So, rather than staying on the main roads, we made our own! Now this folks is 4 X 4 to the max! Trees? Not an issue, at least not for the truck. The most common thing to hear while driving after the game was "mind the trees". This was because branches wanted to hang onto you and they had huge thorns, so you had to constantly duck to avoid them. Once we followed and located the animals, it was time to dart. We started by darting Sables. These are like large antelopes with massive horns. They are brown when they are young and continue to turn black. 1 sable costs about R3,000,000 ($428,571 Canadian dollars), so as you can see, we could not mess up! They are so costly as they are very rare and beautiful. We had 5 sables to do. We had to do Nyala as well, which are worth R20,000 ($3,000 Canadian dollars). They are "deer like" only they have stripes and longer hair.

The initial darting did not go so well. In order to dart, the animal must be standing still and only 30 meters away. If you missed, the dart was lost which is a big deal as they are expensive, but you also lose your drug in that dart which is even more costly, so bottom line - no missing! After a few tries (due to the scope not being properly sighted) Tertius shot the first Sable. After they take the dart, they run around like crazy, go still and then drop down after about 4 minutes. Once they are down, you have to go find them and grab their horns first to control them. Then you put horn guards on for protection, get them on a stretcher and then into the back of the truck. They are not fully sedated and can still kick and move (as Alysha found out the hard way... by a kick to the gut) so you have to be careful. You then spray the wound from the dart, give them penicillin, deworm them and then put on a parasite and tick drip. Once they are at the destination of arrival, you pull them off the stretcher and remove the horn guards and inject the reversal drug into the ear vein. Then, within seconds they get up and run off. Now the process starts all over again with the others!

When it came to the nyalas, we did not treat them as they are not as valuable, so we just darted and moved them. They were a bit smaller (sables - 350kg, nyalas - 200kg) so this made things easier. Also, instead of "going down" after being darted, they trotted towards you and waited for you to grab their horns which we thought was the cutest thing! We darted 4 nyala.

If the animals were not sedated enough due to a high threshold or not enough drug, we would top them up with Ketamine to "freeze" the muscles. This came in handy for 2 nyalas and one sable who kept thrashing and trying to get up.

The farm that we were working on was privately owned and had breeding stock. These animals are mainly bred for hunting purposes as this is another main income for SA. They do hunting for meat, but mainly for trophy. This did not sit well for the both of us as we are against trophy hunting. They are hunted by international people from all of the world, mainly Europe and North America.

After we were done with our animals, Tertius and Pierre took us out to another game farm to watch capture of a giraffe. It was a 15 month old bull who was being flown to China or Japan to live in a zoo. This also bothered us as we can see how wild these animals really are and now they are going to live in a zoo, but that is the business in SA. It was interesting to see how they did this capture. Once the giraffe was darted, they covered the face and plugged the ears so it was not noise sensitive and then lead it on a leash like a dog into a trailer. They also had ropes around the body to guide it in properly. It is a big deal to move these animals without stressing them out, so it is always good to have an experienced vet on board!