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DROUGHT NEWS
 Finally
the drought has broken at SanWild and as I am writing this newsletter
rain continues to fall on the parched earth. It has now been 4 weeks
since the first rains came and the conditions for the SanWild animals
have improved drastically. There is sufficient food around for starving
animals to slowly build up their physical condition. No longer are we
faced with starving and dying animals pleading for our help.
May I once
again use this opportunity to thank all of you for your wonderful
support and donations that ensure the survival of hundreds of wild
animals. From the bottom of our hearts and souls we would like to extend
our sincere appreciation once again!
WILDLIFE PROTECTION UNITS:
On a sadder note we have to let you know that presently SanWild do not
have the services of anti-poaching wildlife protection units.
At a time when we are under increasing threat of poachers and while the
poaching of rhinos have increased sharply in South Africa and Limpopo
Province in particular, our sponsor informed us that his foundation no
longer has funds available to continue paying wages as a result of the
economic recession, thus the contract for the reserve with an external
service provider, who supplied rangers in the interim period while we
are getting ready to train our own ranges, has been terminated by the
sponsor on very short notice.
This has put SanWild in a terrible predicament and our animals now run
the risk of being slaughtered by poachers as the rangers can no longer
be employed unless another sponsor can urgently be found. The monthly
cost for the 6 rangers comes to approximately $2000.00 per month.
In our September newsletter we told you about our plans to commence
training of specialised wildlife protection units. Recruitment is
currently taking place but the commencement of training had to be put
forward until February 2009 due to a lack of funding. We will keep you
posted on our progress.
EARN CREDIT POINTS:
BECOME A SANWILD MEMBER
SanWild is always in need of emergency rescue and veterinary funding.
Normally we raise funds by means of public funding appeals, but over the
years we have realised that it is of the utmost importance to have
sufficient funding on call should an emergency arise in which we need to
respond immediately to save an animal’s life. During times like this
there is simply no time to send out appeals as we need to respond
immediately and sometimes such rescues and subsequent life saving
veterinary procedures can be very costly and expensive.
For the past year SanWild has tried to increase our membership base via
the
SanWild on-line facility, but sadly
only a handful of friends responded. For the next 12 months however, we
have set our goal on signing up 500 members to ensure a regular monthly
income that can cover the costs of our emergency rescues.
 We
really have some great membership options available to you at the
moment. As part of our membership packages you will also receive a
monthly complimentary copy of Animal Talk Magazine. SanWild has been
writing regular articles for this publication for the last couple of
months. Concentrating mainly on domestic animals such as cats and dogs,
it is very informative and interesting and gives the pet owner great
insight into all sorts of issues relating to your pets. This is a great
magazine that will be appreciated by people across the world and by
supporting our emergency rescues by means of a regular monthly
membership you can receive this publication absolutely free.
In addition to Animal Talk magazine you will also earn credit points
when you join as a member. Further credit points can be earned by other
fun activities on our interactive website. For more information please
visit
www.sanwild.com Main Page. EARN CREDIT
POINTS or go to our main website www.sanwild.org HOW YOU CAN HELP –
BECOME A SANWILD MEMBER.
We would greatly appreciate you helping us
reach our goal of 500 members by the end of 2009.
NEW ARRIVALS AND RELEASES:
Vervet Monkeys
Our vervet monkey project is doing great
and this month another vervet called Floris arrived from the Sondela
Game Reserve where he was hand raised. He has now been integrated
successfully into the troop although he had to endure a couple of minor
attacks which fortunately was not serious. Floris is now a full member
of the troop. Another two hand raised vervets arrived from the Free Me
Rehabilitation Centre in Paulshof and we are busy integrating them into
the troop.
Noodle, the baby vervet that was delivered by C-section is doing just
great. Karen Trendler took very special care of this neo-natal baby and
he has grown up into a healthy young vervet that is now approximately 3
months old. Noodle will now be integrated with another two small vervet
monkeys just a bit younger than him. Sadly both these to vervets are
very traumatised at the moment and we suspect that both their mothers
were shot by people so that their babies could be stolen as pets for
human children.
This is something happening all too often in our area. Once the humans
have “kidnapped” babies from their murdered mothers, they soon realise
how difficult and demanding a baby vervet can be. All of a sudden the
prospects of holding a wild animal as a pet is not such a good idea any
more and it is then when the unfortunate creatures are normally
discarded or dumped.
We are confident however that the two new babies named Tom and Jerry
will soon settle in with Noodle and will also become happy and healthy
little vervets. From our side we will do what it takes to return them to
the wild where they belong.
Porcupine
Another baby porcupine was also brought to
SanWild and that brings our intake of baby porcupines for this year to
three. The new arrival is still waiting to be named and you are welcome
to email us your suggestions on
sanwild@pixie.co or simply post your
suggestions on the Message Board at
www.sanwild.com Should your suggested
name be chosen by our staff, you can earn 10 credit points that could
eventually help you to claim a free visit to SanWild.
Bush Pigs
Most of you will know about Bossie, a
female bush pig piglet that was hand raised at the centre. She has now
grown into a stunning sub-adult and has become best of mates with the
young white rhino, Le Roux – known as Boytjie to most people. The good
news for Bossie is that another bush pig piglet arrived at the centre
after his mother died in a poacher’s snare.
Poor Ramatsi’s sibling died from starvation and her little carcass was
found next to her dead mother. Fortunately Ramatasi fought to stay alive
and was found in time. He is doing very well and is growing by the day.
Once he is big enough he will be introduced to Bossie who will hopefully
decide to let him into her life and forget about Boytjie for the time
being – not sure how healthy it is for a rhino and bush pig to remain
bonded for life. We will keep you posted on this life story of a white
rhino calf and two bush pigs.
Black Backed Jackals
Three very adorable black backed jackal
pups were brought to SanWild for hand raising and eventual release. They
arrived early this month from Free Me in Paulshof / Johannesburg. The
trio is being held in one of the new rehab units and once they are a bit
bigger will be moved across to a large holding camp from where they will
eventually be released. For now however, the tiny tots need constant
care and monitoring. The pups are also still waiting to be named and
adopted and we would welcome your suggestions. Once again, it is an
opportunity for you to actively partake and earn credit points.
Hadida Ibis
Two very adorable hadida ibis chicks are
being hand raised at the centre.
They provide us with hours of quality entertainment and I think we are
learning as much from them as they have learnt about living with crazy
humans.
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HSUS WILDLIFE LAND TRUST:
In addition to the great rains, we are also privileged to inform you
that SanWild was formally invited by the Australian branch of the
Wildlife Land Trust to join up with this wonderful initiative by the
Humane Society International to form “shelters without walls”. Our
signed contract with this exiting project is on its way to their Head
Office. We are very excited that this partnership could ensure further
protection for SanWild’s animals.
The Humane Society of the United States
(HSUS) that is dedicated to protecting all animals from abuse, made a
decision to do something truly substantive and long-term about
disappearing wildlife habitats. In 1993 they founded the HSUS Wildlife
Land Trusts to provide wild animals with permanently protected natural
habitats.
The idea of establishing the HSUS Wildlife Land Trust came about as
their response to concerns expressed by their members and other
like-minded landowners who sought permanent protection for both their
land and its wildlife. Having discovered that other national land trusts
– as well as many regional and local ones – do not prohibit unnecessary
activities such as commercial and recreational hunting and trapping on
lands they protect, many caring land owners came to the HSUS for help
who shared their view that preserving habitat should be about saving
places of safe refuge for wildlife.
This initiative is truly saving lives by saving land – exactly what
SanWild set out to do when we formed our trust in 2000. For more on the
Wildlife Land Trust please visit
www.wlt.org
WILDLIFE REHABILITATION TRAINING:
 In
March and August 2008, Karen Trendler, an internationally recognised
wildlife rehabilitation expert, presented 2 wildlife introduction
courses at SanWild. Both courses were well attended and course
participants expressed their satisfaction at the quality of lectures
which they found interesting, informative and very educational.
Next year we will continue to give you the
opportunity to enrol for introductory and also advance rehabilitation
courses. For more information please visit the SanWild main website at
www.sanwild.org Main Page, REHAB COURSES or email
lizel@sanwild.org
Please note that should you be interested in any of the courses you can
now benefit by an EARLY BIRD SPECIAL OFFER by enrolling and paying your
course fees in full by 15th December 2008. No discounts will apply after
this deadline.
CURRENT PROJECTS:
Two of our main projects for 2008 are behind schedule as a result of us
not being able to find sufficient funding to complete them. However this
does not mean that the projects have been abandoned; simply that they
will take a bit longer to complete.
We will update you on our progress on the Wildlife Protection Units and
our Large Predator Release Project in our February 2009 news letter. We
are also still waiting for the conservation department to issue the
required permits for the release of the wild dogs and cheetahs at
SanWild.
We are confident that we will receive the permits soon.
NEW ARRIVALS AND RELEASES
CONTINUED:
Ostrich
An adult female ostrich was found in the
reserve by some of our staff members. She was sitting down unable to
walk. Initially we thought she had gone down as a result of the drought,
but on closer examination we found that her one leg was badly swollen
and a clear mark could be seen around the leg that was caused by a wire
– it could have been a poacher’s snare. However it may be, she was very
weak and needed urgent help. She was taken to the rehab centre and had
to be helped to her feet for almost
14 days before she was able to stand and sit down on her own accord. She
has recovered well and having her in the centre gave us an opportunity
to introduce the 5 hand raised ostrich chicks to her. The youngsters
immediately took to their new “foster mother” and we will be releasing
them all together in early March next year. It is great to have the
opportunity to introduce the hand raised youngsters to a wild adult at
an early stage which means she will teach them all they need to know
about surviving in the wild.
Antelope
We are also happy to report that both
Scarlet and Shongile (Lea) have been released back to the wild and they
are both doing well. Since their release almost 14 days ago, they are
remaining with each other and it is quite funny to see a common duiker
and a steenbok grazing together.
Nala and her family was also released back to the wild along with the
group of hand raised kudu calves that were saved during the drought to
prevent them from dying of starvation. The calf of the kudu cow featured
in our Drought Appeal has also survived and so has her mother. Despite
our predictions that she would be dead in a couple of days after our
appeal was sent out she hung on and survived as a result of the game
pellets supplied as supplement feeding. It is our hopes that mother and
daughter will now find each other again!
A small duiker (now named Ms. Obama)
arrived with a badly broken hip.
Fortunately Dr. Pieter Cordier managed to insert steel pins and she was
doing extremely well. Sadly we noticed that her physical condition
suddenly started deteriorating rapidly. We could not find out what was
wrong and she showed all the signs of starvation. Blood tests revealed
both kidney and liver problems and currently she is being treated
intensively. Fortunately it seems as if she is responding positively to
the treatment and all we can do for now is hold thumbs that she will be
able to recover from this set back.
Mongoose
One of our banded mongooses, Tolly was
captured again as he had sustained a bad injury to his hind quarters.
How he sustained the injury remains unknown to us, but at the moment he
is doing well and will be released again to join his troop the moment he
has recovered from his injury.
Zebra Foal
 Tragically
a zebra mare was attacked by an eland bull soon after she gave birth to
a foal and was badly gored. Our rangers reported the incident and our
team responded immediately hoping to save the mare for her foal’s sake.
Unfortunately this was not to be and despite our best efforts, we lost
the mare the next day after she was darted and stitched up. Little Sugar
(named by Ann Orrsten and Liezel Mortimer) was terribly traumatised by
the event and we were worried that the foal that was barely 8 hours old,
would not survive.
 We
are happy to report that she is doing well; physically that is.
Emotionally she still remains distant and has not bonded to any staff
member. At the moment it seems a tree outside her stable is her best
friend. We hope that this will eventually change. She is being closely
watched and we will keep you posted on her progress.
Genet
We would like to use this opportunity to thank Margi Brockelhurst of
FreeMe for her dedicated care of an orphaned genet kitten that was flown
from Prieska to Johannesburg en-route to SanWild. Sadly the kittens were
very dehydrated with severe diarrhoea on arrival at the airport on the
8th November and the male kitten died soon after arrival. The female
kitten was stabilised and kept with Margi until she was strong enough to
be transported to SanWild on 1 December. From only 118grams on arrival
in Johannesburg she now weighs 250 grams.
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