THE GREAT GIRAFFE RESCUE

The story of Kariba and her mother Sindisa is quite unique and the young giraffe calf is truly SanWild’s miracle baby. That she is alive today can only be seen as a miracle and we trust that you will enjoy reading her story on this page.

On a Tuesday afternoon in July 2005 a citrus farmer phoned SanWild to ask our help for a giraffe cow and her calf. The cow had been most unfortunate and had walked into a poacher’s snare. Fortunately she managed to break the snare free from the tree, in which it had been set, but the steel wire cut deeply into her neck and the wire remained entangled around her and had slipped down to just above her shoulders. Keeping up with her mother was a very small-unweaned calf estimated to be about a week old.

The two unfortunate animals were spotted by Mr. Paul Dunn on a section of government owned land adjoining the Hans Merensky Provincial Game Reserve in Limpopo Province. Mr. Dunn had spoken to his electrician earlier that same morning who had told him that he saw the two animals pacing up and down a cattle fence along the road. The animals’ plight concerned Paul and he investigated to find the cow and calf still pacing up and down the fence. It was clear that the animals wanted for some or other reason to leave the area, but the adult cow that could easily have crossed the cattle fence, simply refused to leave her small calf behind and even though her condition was very bad and the snare remained around her neck, she remained by her calf’s side.

Paul immediately realized that there was something very wrong, both animals were in a weakened state and despite the snare not posing an immediate danger to the cow; the animals’ condition was very bad indeed. In the past we have responded to other calls from Mr. Dunn to help animals in need and Paul returned to his office to phone SanWild.

Obviously we immediately agreed to help. Mr. Dunn told us that the electrician had contacted the local conservation authorities at the Hans Merensky Game Reserve, but that they refused to help and indicated that there was nothing to be done for the two unfortunate giraffes.

SanWild arranged the rescue of the two animals within a day and on the Thursday morning the rescue team captured and relocated both giraffes to temporary quarantine holding pens at the Hans Merensky Game Reserve. Generous donor funding from private individuals and organizations made it possible to launch this very expensive emergency rescue operation While the rescue was in progress our team of anti-poaching rangers discovered several more snares that had been set high up in the trees to specifically target and kill the giraffe cow. They also discovered the reason for the animals weakened state – they had been without drinking water for at least 10 days. Tribal cattle were present on the same piece of land, but their owners had drained all the artificial watering points inside the 450 hectare camp and came to collect their cattle every morning to lead them to water on an adjoining piece of land after which they were returned to the camp where no water was present. It was obvious that the giraffe cow and calf had become the specific target of the cattle owners/poachers and that they were adamant to kill the animals – by snaring or weakening them by keeping them away from water. Both Sindisa and Kariba (her calf) was close to death and the deep trench along the cattle fence that had been walked out by the two giraffes told the sad story of their desperate struggle to reach water.

It was as a result of their weakened state that the capture of the two giraffes almost turned into a tragedy for the young calf. As the team attempted to dart the young calf from the helicopter, she collapsed and died and it was only the quick response of the ground rescue team that saved her life. When the SanWild team reached the small calf lying on the hard, dry ground, she was clinically dead. There was no heartbeat, no breathing and no eye reflex. CPR was immediately started while the helicopter landed to allow the wildlife veterinarian to join the ground team. He continued with CPR and twelve minutes later, the calf started breathing again. The team was overjoyed, as we all felt pretty heartbroken at the loss of the young animal. Despite losing her a second time on the back of a transport vehicle, on route to the holding pens, she was revived again. Unfortunately as a result of her dying because of her weakened condition, we could not consider rejoining her with her mother under unnatural and very cramped conditions and a decision had to be taken to hand raise the calf.

It took many days and nights before Kariba was able to stand and walk again, but she did manage to do so and quickly thereafter regained her strength. Sindisa and Kariba was faced with even more problems as the conservation authorities laid claim to both animals after their compulsory quarantine period had been completed after a month. They wanted both giraffes released into the Hans Merensky Provincial Game Reserve that have major poaching and snaring problems. Our trust refused to allow the animals to be subjected to more danger and we urgently brought a High Court application to give us the right to move the cow and calf (that was being hand raised at the time) to SanWild. This permission was granted and after our team had to break padlocks on the gates of the Hans Merensky Game Reserve, we moved both giraffes to the SanWild Wildlife Sanctuary.

Kariba was placed in Baixinhia's rhino holding boma where her treatment and hand raising continued and Sindisa was released into the reserve to regain her strength and recover from her terrible ordeal. We knew that she would join the other wild giraffes already living in the reserve and that despite her calf being hand raised, they would eventually be able to rejoin each other wild and free.

Early in January 2006 and SanWild had received a lot of rain. Young Kariba had already grown from a small week old calf to a healthy young giraffe that was able to look over the 2.4-meter poles of her holding boma. The time was now right to release her so that she could learn to live in the wild. She had grown past the dangerous stage where she could easily be taken by a wild leopard. Wild giraffe herds have been visiting her on a regular basis since her arrival in the holding boma in September 2005.

After Kariba was released from the boma she was monitored and accompanied by our anti-poaching rangers for a couple of weeks until we felt confident that she knew her way around. For many weeks she received supplement feeding until she simply chose not to return to the boma for food any longer.

It has now been a full year that Kariba has lived as a wild giraffe. She joins up with the herds from time to time, but returns to the office at least once every second day to drink water at the waterhole. At times she is alone and sometimes the old large bull or other wild giraffes accompany her.

However our Trust will still need to fight the battle that will allow Kariba to continue her life at SanWild where she will be protected from poachers’ snares. No final agreement has been reached between us and the conservation authorities with regard to ownership of the animals and if need be we will continue our battle in South Africa’s High Court. We have made a settlement offer to the conservation authorities, but even now more than a year later, we still have not managed to get an answer from them as to Kariba’s fate. We will keep you all posted on whether our offer is eventually accepted or rejected.