Day 12: Patience/Patients

 Some days, it’s all about finding your patients. 

After a luxuriously late 7:30 start, we headed to a farm to dart and transport sable antelope. We were met by the same guy who drove the golden wildebeest truck yesterday—he reported that all arrived in good condition. 

Into the back of another little white pickup! By now, the students are pros at maintaining their balance in the bouncing truck while dodging overhanging limbs and searching for animals. We drove up through citrus groves to a series of steep hillsides and began looking for sable.

For 2 hours, we drove every track in the reserve. Uphill and down, winding around, all eyes scanning for sable. Not a trace. We saw plenty of other animals: Impala, including 2 black Impala, which are gorgeously black and shiny, nyala, a duiker, and a fish eagle.

Fish eagle overlooking a dam. Shortly after I snapped this photo, he took off and flew and soared above us for several minutes.

Next, we made a short bathroom/provisions stop and headed out to watch a hippo capture. This is tricky, because a) hippos can be very dangerous, b) they are in the water, and c) they’re really, really big! We waited on one side of the dam while a boat attempted to locate the specific hippo that was to be moved. No easy feat when all you can see is their eyes and ears!

The current plan is to head back to the lodge after this for a little practice with the dart gun, so we can shoot from the helicopter tomorrow. (Yay! I love this activity!). We hope to also locate and dart a hyena that is entrapped in a snare wire later in the evening when she will be active. 

Watched some pretty shorebirds while waiting.

African jacana in the shallows. Don’t worry, I was standing well back from the water when I took it!

And, with the day’s luck, no hippo, either! We had several sightings at different points in the pool, but no clear shot.

So back to base for a rare hour of rest. Then off to target shoot. Even the hyena cancelled! We hope to either have the managers able to sedate her via bait, or will try tomorrow night. An entire 24 hours without our hands on an animal!

We spent some time this afternoon getting familiar with the dart gun, learning safety and basic skills; we will out these to use tomorrow when we shoot at a target from a helicopter!

Loading the dart

Pressurizing the gun (this one uses a CO2 cylinder; Rita’s is a modified .22 that uses blanks.)

Taking aim

And shooting at the target.

And pulling darts out of the target. We all managed to hit the target fairly consistently!

Early supper, early to bed. We are on call in case the hyena gets sedated overnight. If the owners call, we will jump into the bus and go meet Rita to treat the snare wound.