Rhino Capture!

Last weekend we stayed over at Mvuu camp in order to help out with the rhino capture. Saturday morning Shawna and I went on a walk about around 5:30am. We were looking for the jewel of Liwonde National Park the Lovebird, but did not find them. We did see lots of elephants though!



The rest of saturday was spent in two different blinds observing all the wildlife.



Kudu females and young males





The beautiful male sable, arn't they handsom?



This sable went horns to tusk of a warthog who stood his ground...





Heartabeast



Look at these ones! Tourists on safari! Yes they scared away some sable and zebra!




Sunday was the day to dart the rhino. This is Shawna with the rhino trackers our neighbors and great friends!



People were put in trees around the water hole where the rhino was then the doctor with the dart gun and the trackers went in. We waited with the trailer that would pick him after he was asleep.



The rhino Leonard ran 600 meters along the road then fell right beside the road, very easy access. This is Jess a guy brought in from Majeta, African Parks in southern Malawi.



They wrapped his face with Chris's shirt to keep all the dust and dirt out of his face.



The doctor gave Shawna a job. He had to remove the heart monitor while we all tried to move him so it didn't get broken so he asked Shawna to moitor Leo's breathing. She was glued to him from that point on. As the doc said, "Mamas are much better than men at this sort of thing." And seeing Shawna and I were the only two female in the group, well Shawna got the job!



Getting ready to move the mini giant.



Bryan and Shawna



Shawna had to ride in the trailor with the doctor and Leo to keep monitoring him.




How cool is this!!!!



So the reason this one was darted was because of injury and health. As you can see he is young, he was kicked out of the family group and then another male decided to teach him a lesson. He had bad stabs and cuts under his rear legs.



All the blue is medicine sprayed on the minor cuts all over his back from brush and such.



After all the work of moving this guy they cleaned him up and tended to the wounds and then Shawna's job was done as they woke him up and we let him get his bearings. This guy will be kept for at least a month to feed him and let him heal. Then most likely he will be translocated to another park, Liwonde's sanctuary is just not large enough for so many males, and they can not be released into the park because the fences are not kept well enough to protect the rhinos.


This weekend is the water hole count and next the large animal count so look for more photos soon!