Life whilst on Game Capture

Last week I was watching TV and as I was flicking through the channels I stumbled across 'Great Animal Moves'.  There was a translocation team moving two large bull elephants in Malawi, from one game reserve to the next, and it brought back great memories of when I was working with a game capture unit in South Africa. Imagine my surprise when the camera panned round and there was Kester Vickery organising the loading of one of these elephants - it had been Kester's team that I had worked with!

I had been asked by a good friend of mine, Jason De Carteret, to join a game capture unit and to give some feedback on the viability of a business idea. Jason was the helicopter pilot working alongside Kester's game capture unit and I spent a very happy month living in the bush, manhandling animals of all shapes and sizes, loading them in and out of crates and driving them across the African wilderness.

I was certainly thrown in at the deep end; I found myself feeding captured rhinos whilst they were in their crates, walking in a line through the African bush trying not to step on any unsuspecting snakes (and in the process shepherding game into specific enclosures), picking ticks by the dozen of my overalls and rugby tackling antelope before injecting them with a sedative. It was the stuff that dreams are made of. It was hard work though, we were getting up before the sun rose and after a quick breakfast we were on the move in the bush for the whole of the day. There was no time for those that could not keep up and if you made a mistake you certainly knew about it!

The most enjoyable time I had was capturing nyala. Admittedly this did not involve the use of the helicopter, or chasing after semi sedated giraffe in vehicles across bumpy terrain or watching rhino been manoeuvred from one crate to another, nyala capture was even more exciting, it is done by hand.

Nyala are dense bush dwelling antelope and cannot be rounded up by vehicle or helicopter, it is all achieved by manpower. A large net about 3m high and 30m long is set up in the bush, in an area where nyala are known to frequent. Then a handful of people called spotters, which often included myself, hide in the bush in front of the net, and wait. You have to have incredibly patience doing this as you could be waiting a while before the action starts. And any movement can spook nearby game. Meanwhile, a few kilometres away, the rest of the team form a long line and start 'beating' the bush to flush the out the nyala and push them towards the trap.

At this point my adrenaline levels were normally overloaded as I could hear the game in the bush moving nearer to my hiding spot. As the animals got closer the tendency to hold your breath got greater and I found that my senses, especially my ears and eyes, were heightened. And then a dozen or so nyala would run past me, so close that I could touch them, and fall into the trap of the netting. Then the action began.

Immediately the spotters would be upon the animals bringing them physically to the ground, lying across them and blindfolding their eyes. If an nyala did not hit the netting it was a bit of a free for all - nyala were rugby tackling to the ground! Lying on the animals and blind folding them calmed them down and prevented the antelope from damaging themselves.  At this point a vet sedated nyala to prevent further stress. Once sedated you can walk the nyala as if you are pushing a bicycle, one hand on an ear and the other hand grabbing the hair on its shoulder, and you can steer it towards the truck or container. A very odd experience all round!

I had a wonderful time working alongside Kester's team.  You never really knew what type of game hit the net. More often than not it was nyala, although we did once have a rather unhappy leopard. We decided to leave her to untangle herself!

A Cheetah Kiss

I was in a meeting with three incredible business women, Samantha Mant of Three Sixty Services Ltd, Rebecca Tregarthen of rejoove and Deb MacLeod of DMM Consulting, and we were having a great discussion about social media and subject matter. Luckily for me, Sense Africa subject matter is pretty much limitless and there are so many stories, anecdotes and facts about Africa that I can impart. Finding factoids about plumbing, business development and client relationship consulting can be a little bit harder and my friends have to be much smarter with how they get their message across.

I can talk about Africa until the cows, cats come home and wildlife experiences are always a great topic, well it is for me. So here is a cheetah story....

I was doing some research into cheetah projects in Namibia a few years back and found myself visiting a farm which took in problem cheetah.  These cheetah had, more often than not, killed cattle and were therefore considered a pest species. The cheetah were then captured and relocated to a farm in the north of Namibia where they were fed and looked after and, if possible, new homes were looked for.

I arrived by car and got out to open the gates. There was a fenced area, like with all homesteds in Africa, where the land around the house is fenced in to prevent wild animals getting too near to the home. Just as I was opening the gates I noticed two cheetah lolloping from around the back of the house. I promptly closed the gate for fear of letting them out, but more importantly, for fear of them getting too close to me. This was not really what I had expected, most people in Africa have dogs guarding their house, not cheetah.

Chris then came out of the front door, luckily he had been expecting me, and he shouted that it was OK to come in. I have to admit I was a little bit reserved in opening the gate, I was now only 2m away from what I perceived to be very wild animals. It was all rather surreal. The cheetah lost interest and walked away whilst I gingerly got my bags out of the car. This was going to be an memorable stay!

Cheetah are interesting animals, they are easily domesticated and in the olden days were often used as pets. However, once cheetah are familiar with man, they lose their hunting and survival instincts and cannot be reintroduced back into the wild. These two cheetah had been taken in when they were cubs and had therefore become used to living in a semi-domesticated state. They were fed carcasses on the back lawn, sharpened their claws on the garden trees and wandered inside the house as if they owned it – which in my mind they probably did.

That night it was Chris's birthday and we celebrated by having champagne outside under the wonderful starlit African sky. The steak was on the braai and we were listening to the sounds of the African wildlife, I was truly content at that moment. What more could a girl want?

Chris asked me a question about the projects I was running and I turned my head to the right to answer him whereupon I found myself being eyeballed by one of the cheetah, 20 cm away from my nose. I opened my mouth slowly to answer his question (sudden movements are not good) when the cheetah leaned forward and licked me on my arm. I know that cats have rough tongues, but this felt like I was being electrically sand papered with nails, I was surprised to find that my skin was still intact.

What more could a girl want? A cheetah kiss was suffice.