Part of veterinarian’s job is performing necropsies to establish the cause of death. There are challenges associated with this and especially for the wildlife veterinarians. One of the challenges is finding a carcass which unless you have very good patrol teams you might never find them. The other challenge, which other wildlife veterinarians will agree with me, is state of decomposition. You will realize that majority of wildlife are found in arid or semi arid areas where ambient temperatures are so high causing rapid decomposition of the carcass and with that no meaningful necropsy can be done and hence difficult to establish the cause of death. In the recent past we have lost animals due to suspected poisoning, only to find carcasses too late when they are already decomposed and hence difficult to come up with a definitive diagnosis. To increase chances of getting fresh carcasses we train our rangers on monitoring and reporting incidences in the field as they occur. Active Carcass Search has really helped in locating fresh carcasses and necropsy is performed before the carcass decomposes. Necropsy acts like a early warning system because your findings will help in preventing and/or controlling re-occurrence of the same problem.
This giraffe was seen on 12th May 2008 at Lewa wildlife conservancy. The rangers reported that, they saw him limping and the left forelimb and the right hind limb had swollen joints. By then the veterinarian was away on another duty and so he could not attend to the animal immediately. When the veterinarian was back, we did not find the animal then. 4 days later the same animal was found dead. We arranged to perform a necropsy to establish the cause of death.
Among the significant findings were fracture of the carpal bone and joint infection. The neck was bent and on opening it up, it was found that the cervical bones were dislocated. It was suspected that the animal must have been knocked by another one causing the dislocation of the cervical bones. There was blood tinged froth in the trachea and its is suspected that the giraffe died of aspiration pneumonia.
Livestock farmers surrounding wildlife conservancies benefit from Herd Health management training. Introduction
One of the biggest challenges to wildlife conservation is the human - wildlife conflict. When human livelihood is threatened by wildlife, people tend to react by looking for ways and means of eliminating the wildlife. We have had cases ranging from poisoning, spear wounds to gun shots as a way of eliminating the problem. When you look at it critically you will realise that, it is due to poverty that make human react like that. The ultimate way to solving human wildlife conflict is through poverty eradication. As a wildlife veterinarian I strive to contribute positively to the livelihoods of people living near game parks. Many people think I am confined to wildlife, but the veterinary profession has equipped me with skills necessary to train and educate farmers on ways of minimising their problems. Majority of the people living near game parks are pastoralists and depend mainly on livestock farming. Among the challenges they face include; overgrazing, diseases (which they blame wildlife as the source), lack of market for their products. It is against this background that we organised a livestock farmers training course in collaboration with the Northern Rangelands Trust and Ministry of Livestock, to equip farmers with the necessary skills to tackle their problems. Target group We Invited livestock farmers from Ethi, Nandunguro, Sangaa, Manyangalo, Ngare ndare and chumvi areas all neighbouring the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. This is at the Livestock -wildlife interface and animals do easily share diseases(see the photo). Training was geared towards maximizing production and helping farmers market their livestock product, mainly beef. Farmers’ response At the end of the training, we asked farmers to comment on the training, and one had this to say “this is a training of its kind, it was very useful, and you should organize more”. We are now planning to organise the second round of training but this will be subject to availability of funds. By: Dr. Stephen Chege
Many a times people will ask why bother treating wild animals. The argument I get is let’s the nature take its course. To me this might not be true. My experience has shown that if you don’t make a timely veterinary intervention more often than not you lose the injured animal due to septicemia. This kind of luxury or laxity cannot be afforded in an endangered species like the black rhino. We always try to make timely and professional intervention whenever its necessary. A case in point is after a serious fight between two black rhinos, one male developed serious injuries, on the face and perineal region. I was called in to go and provide veterinary assistance.
Whenever you are encountered with such a problem, the biggest challenge is darting the animal and especially if you are doing it on foot. This requires patience and good marksmanship. Anyway, we overcame all the challenges and managed to treat the rhino and he is now recovering well. I would like to thank everyone who made this exercise successful
The Mountain Region Mobile veterinary Clinic - A KWS/Lewa initiative Introduction The veterinary section has not contributed much to the wildlife direct for the last few weeks. This does not mean that it has not contributed to conservation. In fact the Mountain veterinary clinic has been so busy in her efforts to positive contribution to conservation.
Just to mention a few, these are some of the activities that the veterinary clinic has been involved in for the last few weeks: 1) Mass capture and Translocation of wildlife into Meru National Park (MNP)
MNP had experienced heavy poaching during the 1980s and early 1990. As a result, the population of most wildlife species was drastically reduced. In 2000, efforts to start restocking the park were initiated with translocation of about 10 elephants. During the preceding years, other species were translocated into Meru National Park (MNP).
During this year, between August and September, 1,016 Impalas and 771 Plain Zebras were captured by use of funnel system and translocated into MNP. It is hoped that the following will be achieved: 1. Viable population of target species is established 2. Genetic variability and viability of target species is ensured 3. Number of species for tourists to view is increased Kenya Wildlife Service, veterinary / capture and species departments, led in the planning and execution of the exercise. Being a member of the veterinary and capture department (KWS) I was called in to lend a hand. The exercise can be termed successful but this will be proved by the research scientists doing the post-translocation monitoring of the species translocated. 2) Elephant Collaring The Laikipia Elephant Project (LEP) in collaboration with the University of Cambridge has developed a project in building capacity to alleviate Human-Elephant conflict in Northern Kenya. LEP works in collaboration with Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and Save The Elephants (STE) and other local organisations to achieve her goals. KWS approved the exercise and the veterinary section played an instrumental role in immobilisation and fitting of the collars. The collaring operations were carried out to fit a new generation of GSM/AWT collars on crop-raiding elephants, with a view to trying the E-fence system, a potential human-elephant conflict early warning system based on mobile phone technology. Three male elephants were successfully immobilised and fitted with collars. Foot darting was a challenge due to the risks involved, but after a hard work we succeeded. Data derived from this exercise will help in devising ways in building capacity to alleviate Human-Elephant conflict in Northern Kenya. Lots of planned activities in the next quarter, stay tuned. (There were some photos to go with this post but due to some technical problems they will not appear) Thank you.
Relieving animal suffering is one of the core functions of a veterinarian. Pain causes discomfort and affects normal functions of an animal. One such animal in pain is an adult male elephant that was treated in the Buffalo Springs Reserve by the the Kenya Wildlife Service(KWS) veterinarian based at Lewa. The Game rangers from the Buffalo springs reserve reported to the KWS veterinarian that they had found an adult male elephant limping and in great pain. Being a priority the veterinarian drove for 2 hours to the site of incidence.Upon arrival and after a few minutes of search, the animal was found under Acacia mellifera tree. A close observation of the animal was made before darting. After the animal was recumbent, it was found that there was a gun shot wound on the right forelimb. The wound was cleaned and checked for the presence or absence of the bullet. No bullet was found. Proper wound management procedures were followed and the animal injected with massive doses of long acting antibiotic to prevent further bacterial infection that may lead to septicaemia. Bacterial septicaemia and toxemia are known to cause deaths in animals and since the animal was treated at an early stage, his prognosis favourable. My sincere thanks go to the management of the Buffalo springs reserve and the KWS Isiolo complex for reporting the case in good time
Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary The Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary opened in 1993. Lonrho Africa, the Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) and the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) established a facility to receive and provide sanctuary and housing to an original group of 3 chimps orphaned at a young age by the bush-meat trade. The facility now has more than 40 chimpanzees. The facility is housed within the Ol Pejeta Conservancy which is a 90,000 acre wildlife conservancy situated between the foot hills of the Aberdares and the magnificent snow-capped Mount Kenya . The Kenya Wildlife Service veterinarian based at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy provides veterinary health care in the bigger mountain Region, of which Ol Pejeta Conservancy is part of the area of his jurisdiction. On Friday 22nd June one Chimpanzee (Max) was involved in a fight and pushed to the wall by a fellow chimpanzee. The veterinarian was called in and by the time of arrival the animal manifested signs of pain. An X-ray was paramount to establish the cause of pain. X-ray revealed a fractured left humerus. Pre-operation x-ray
Management of fractureWith the help of Prof. Susan Mbugua, a renowned veterinary orthopaedic surgeon and a Professor in the Department of clinical studies in theUniversity of Post-operative X-ray Post-operative care The animal is now back at Sweetwaters Chimpanzee Sanctuary and is on antibiotics, sedatives and analgesics. We are pleased to mention that, at the time of writing this report, the animal has shown tremendous recovery progress.
Collaring of animals for research Wildlife biologists and veterinarians have to keep them abreast with the developments in technology. We employ radio collars to study the animal movements. These collars have been very helpful in monitoring animal movements. The data derived from this is applied by the park managers to manage the animals. For example, elephants are known to migrate along corridors and being associated with human-wildlife conflicts. Once the data is downloaded, maps are drawn and it’s easy to explain to anyone how these animals move. A practical example is giving data on poaching. One elephant that had been collared, showed no movements upon downloading of the data, and this raised an alarm, and people were sent to the ground to find out what was happening. Just to find a carcass, with the collar but minus the tusks. This tells the management to boost on security and surveillance in such areas.
This lion moves from Lewa into Samburu. Lions are also involved in conflicts and we put collars in order to track their movements. The rangers are trained on how to use the receivers and report back to office whenever they see or pick signals of the collared animals Collaring of elephants The vet was involved in collaring of 4 elephants in Marsabit National park. The KWS researcher and Save the elephant team employed GSM collars on elephants in order to understand their enviroments. The data collected is very useful for management planning. For example we can easily tell the elaphant migratory corridors buy seeing how these animals move
The terrain in Marsabit is inaccessible using a vehicle hence we darted the animals from a helicopter. Use of a chopper for darting is very expensive, but the value of the data collected outruns the cost.
One would wonder, why bother with wild animals? One person told me, “why can’t you leave the nature to take its course” My answer was, it can be done if it can also happen to human beings. If man took care of wild animals in the 1900s and before we could not be talking of the words like endangered species. To me wild animals should be conserved, protected and given proper medical care. Unlike the human doctors and my counterparts in pets practice, wildlife veterinary work is more expensive, challenging, risky and calls for people with determination to handle the challenging issues.
The vet is applying an eye ointment into the eye of a giraffe. Most of the wild animals have to be immobilised for any intervention to be done. Immobilisation drugs are expensive and are also potentially dangerous to animals. Any opportunity to avoid using them the better
This white rhino is used to human beings and an antibiotic is being administered intramuscularly. This animal had a deep cut wound on the right fetlock joint. The wound was cleaned with antiseptic solution and a long acting antibiotic administered.
This elephant was a victim of human wildlife conflict and it sustained several spear wound injuries on his body. The vet was called in to intervene. The animal was treated and released back to the wild
THE MOUNTAIN REGION VETERINARY CLINIC; A COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE KENYA WILDLIFE SERVICE (KWS) AND LEWA WILDLIFE CONSERVANCY (LWC) Preamble Kenya Wildlife Service is a Government agency charged with the national responsibility of protection and conservation of wildlife species in Kenya. To achieve this goal it has various divisions. The main core divisions include; Security, Biodiversity, Research and Monitoring, and Wildlife and Community Service. The Veterinary department of Kenya Wildlife Service falls under the Biodiversity, Research and Monitoring Division and is responsible for the sustenance of viably healthy and breeding wildlife populations. The LWC on the other hand is a non- profit making organization based on 62,000 acres of savannah, wetland and community development to conserve endangered wildlife species, operating in Isiolo district, Kenya. The two organisations compliment each other in their conservation efforts. The Project The field projects are able to: Project execution Area of operation By Dr S. M Chege
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