Buffalo rescue

Category: Other wildlife, poaching, zimbabwe | Date: Aug 15 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

As I mentioned, I was asked the other day to help rescue a buffalo calf that was caught in a snare. I was a bit nervous because I hadn’t worked on buffalo before but something had to be done so off I went. Below is a picture of the buffalo as I first saw him: struggling to free himself from the wire caught tight around his back left leg…

Buffalo calf in a snare

Having estimated drug combinations and doses from an excellent ‘wildlife capture’ book, I darted the little fellow and then moved off to let him relax and go to sleep.

Dart in the buffalo calf

After about 15 minutes he was pretty much out although still twitching his ears and moving his head occasionally. We blindfolded him and blocked his ears to reduce stressful stimuli (light and noise) and then removed the snare from around his leg. It had dug very deep into the skin but looked like it would heal: we washed it out and disinfected it, and gave him some long-acting antibiotics (although I later found out from a wildlife vet that I should have given him a much higher dose of antibiotics and perhaps some anti-inflammatory: oh well, we live and learn).

The wound on the buffalo calf from the snare

Unfortunately this story does not have a happy ending though. After we finished treating the buffalo I reversed the drugs and we moved off to watch him recover. He was close to water and the rest of the herd was not far away so he would have had a good chance of making it, but unfortunately as soon as he came around it became clear that something was wrong. We had ascertained that his leg was not broken while we had him immobilised, but it turned out that he had dislocated it at the hip trying to pull out of the snare. He was evidently in a lot of pain and such an injury would not heal naturally, so very sadly he had to be put out of his misery. Another waste of an animals life by these cruel snares.

But despite the sad ending, I learned a lot, which will equip me better to deal with such incidents in the future, and for the buffalo, it was a lot better than a slow death from dehydration and starvation in the snare, coupled with the pain of a dislocated leg, so I do believe that we still helped him.

Hopefully the next post will bring some cheerier news!

Rosemary

Tags: buffalo, buffalo calf, poaching, snaring, zimbabwe

4 Responses to “Buffalo rescue”

sauwah, on 15 Aug 2009

you did help the poor calf by freeing him and put him out of his misery. I know he could have been food for lions, leopards or hyneas. and i am sure these predators can use a good meal. but knowing the poor thing would have suffered fear and pain due to this disgusting and cruel snare, you did the right thing. and if it were for human’s trap, this calf would have been with its herd. so again, predators would have had to earn their meal somewhere else.

Dana, on 16 Aug 2009

Very sad that this happened to this little one. As you said better than the slow agonizing death it would have had to endure.

paula, on 17 Aug 2009

Hi Rosemary. I put this story on twitter and someone asked how the buffalo was put down…

zimbabwewilddogs, on 22 Aug 2009

Hi all
Thanks for your comments. Paula - the buffalo calf was shot (by the experienced manager of the proprty where it was snared).
Sauwah - I firmly believe in not interfering in nature for exactly the reasons you mention: injured calves are important for feeding sick carnivores or for teaching pups/cubs how to hunt. If an injury is natural I would leave it. In this case however, it was human-induced suffering and I therefore strongly believe it is up to us to deal with it as best as possible - ideally treat and release it, but if it needs to be put down, then it should be. The carcass will have been left for the carnivores anyway.

Rosemary

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