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G'day all!
This past holidays I was lucky enough to head to South Africa on a trip organised by their vet school. People from 24 different countries were selected to attend and it went for 16 days. We started in Pretoria (near Jo'burg) at their university before going to Kruger National Park, Cape Vidal, Durban, Golden Gate National Park and back to Pretoria.
It was basically a huge party most of the time but we also got to see heaps of awesome wildlife, and do some medical procedures on a handful of species. This is hands down the best experience of my life and I wanted to share it with you. I hope the photos are enjoyable, but you'll have to bear with me as there are bloody HEAPS of them.
I've put descriptions above some of the more interesting stuff so you know what is going on, hope you enjoy!
SOME NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH
This is their anatomy lab. These animals were not killed for science, but fresh bodies found in national parks are collected and preserved for anatomy lessons in the vet school. There are some antelope, a cheetah, an aborted white rhino calf, a baby elephant and a lion (check out the size of the lion's paws compared to the chair..)
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This is the day we went to the De Wildt Cheetah and Wild Dog Centre.. an awesome day
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A vulture and albino honey badger also there
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We had to dart one of the cheetah as it was sick and the vet needed to do a gastroscopy on it. This is the vet with the dart gun.
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The cheetah in the back of the ute, and then on the table in the gastroscopy room. The cheetah had gastric ulcers and a pretty heavy worm burden.
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Me feeling the pulse and checking out the teeth and foot
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One of the girls taking blood and me giving an intramuscular injection of penicillin
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Me checking the heart rate
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In the afternoon we went for a drive around the reserve and had a look at some of their other animals. This is a normal coloured honey badger.
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This is a smaller cat, a caracal, being fed - pictures are rubbish here.
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The resident ostriches thought it was a good time to sneak up on people watching the caracal
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We drove into an area where some of their wild dogs were held. We watched them get fed and learnt about their hunting habits. They are 80-100% successful when hunting as they go in a group, and for this reason very few game ranchers want to keep them.. they are therefore pretty rare and even up until the 1970s Kurger National Park rangers were instructed to shoot them on site. They chase their prey as a pack, making spooky noises and seeming like there are more than there actually are until the animal is so tired they can grab and disembowel it.
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Feeding the cheetahs
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The 'king' cheetah. King cheetahs are the same species but have a different inherited coat pattern. In the wild king cheetahs are usually killed as cubs because they stand out.
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This is a post mortem of a warthog. Scroll down away from this if you are squeamish. Sorry if it offends anybody but I found it really interesting.
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This is in Kruger National Park now, and within 5 minutes of the front gate we spotted this giraffe
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Two male impala from a bachelor herd
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Some distant hippos
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Our first few elephants. Bachelor males hanging out together.
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Getting angry at the bus
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White rhino dozing way off in the distance
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Some impala (common as dog poo over there! They were everywhere), more giraffe and some female kudu
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We arrived at the dorms, chucked our stuff in the rooms and went out to take some photos of the monkeys raiding the bin right outside. These are vervet monkeys.
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Our first morning game drive. It was an open air vehicle at four thirty in the morning and it was ABSOLUTELY freeeeezing. There were blankets on every chair and people were bringing their sleeping bags on the vehicle.
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An elephant by the side of the track
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Some more giraffe
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This is a saddle billed stork
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Nests in a tree, a baboon and a water/Nile monitor
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Hippo
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Some lizards at the camp
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Our first night drive - again, it was very cold indeed. A cape buffalo
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Sunsets with and without marabou storks in the tree
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There were a few spotted hyena getting around, making their creepy noises.. This is the only photo I got as it was getting dark and my camera didn't appreciate it. We saw leopards in the tree and heaps of other animals but my camera by this time did not work at all in the dark.
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During the night drive, we had a "few" sundowners on the vehicles and as a result needed to pee. That was an issue though as you aren't allowed to leave the vehicles.. Our driver stopped only on bridges, where we could see clearly what was coming from both directions. This is after our pee on the bridge where a ranger was taken by a lion a year previously.
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These photos are from the day where we went out and did rhino immobilisations. Rhinos were darted and loaded onto trailers as they were being sold to game ranches. When the rhino went down we rushed in and got to do stuff with them.. I stood back as I had a go with the cheetah but people took faecal samples by doing a rectal, tissue samples from the ear, blood samples etc etc. The rhinos were then given slight antidotes and we literally walked them (pushing/pulling them as they walked) into their trailers. An amazing experience. We saw 4 brother lions on the road this morning but the only photos I got were very blurry.
The first 2 photos are the chopper used to dart and the guards who were watching our backs as we were out in the wild.
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This is the 1st rhino, a male. Check out the dart in its backside.
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Down he goes
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This is the next rhino, a female. This is the one I helped work on. Taking a tissue sample
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My hand on the skin (amazingly thick) and me checking the heartbeat
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Some ticks on the skin and my mate taking the temperature
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This is the town where all the workers at the camps and rangers etc live. It is unfenced and wildlife move freely through the town. One of my mates brothers worked there and was there when one of the townspeople was taken by a lion on the town tennis court. This is a photo of a pair of warthogs on the oval.
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Another sunset on a night drive
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This day was the day we darted an elephant. Elephants are so numerous in Kruger they are the only animals you are allowed to dart for educational purposes and we did so this morning.
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The tail hairs are SO thick.. and a foot to foot comparison
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This is me by the mouth, looking a bit like a seedy poacher..
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The tusk dug into the ground as the elephant dropped and here they are excavating it to make sure is doesn't snap as the elephant gets up. Also, the trunk is held open by a stick as it is the only way the elephant can breathe. The trunk is so heavy it is impossible to lift more than a foot of it by yourself.
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On the way back this lioness crossed the road in front of us. She then spent a few minutes circling by the side of the road, calling for cubs she had left there. She has blood on her face from a recent kill. Eventually she crossed back across the road and met up with the other members of her tiny pride, who were babysitting her cubs. The pride consisted of cubs, two lionesses and one male who was limping very badly (he probably had to help with the kill and hurt himself). He will probably be overthrown by a younger male and the cubs killed..
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A baby Nile crocodile, monkeys on the road and a kudu bull in the bushes. Kudu bulls have spiralled horns.. about 2 years age to every turn. They can see right up the middle of the horn.
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A not so baby crocodile, marabou storks fishing (holding their wings up to reduce glare), hippos basking and a kudu cow crossing the road.
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This is a bigger pride of lions in the river bed. Two young males, a few lionesses and cubs. Check out the traffic jam they caused..
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The next night drive. We stopped at a little lake where one bull hippo resided. He wasn't too happy with us being there and was yawning and thrashing the water. When he started submerging and popping up closer and closer we left..
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An eagle, a sunset and a chameleon
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This was a different game park near Cape Vidal. I don't remember the name but we went for a game drive here. First photos are a nyala and her baby bull calf. He's just about ready to leave mum.
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Lots of zebra were really close to the road
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Some blue wildebeest
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This is a waterbuck (you can tell by the white ring on his bum) and his girlfriend. They can graze by the waters edge without a worry as they secrete a foul smelling oil from glands on their legs that crocodiles apparently hate
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More giraffe than you can poke a stick at, and a male wildebeest waiting for some ladies to come through his territory
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Pawprints in the sand and some warthogs
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We then went to a "boma" and practiced shooting the dart guns the vets use
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We also saw this little fella. He is a 9 month old black rhino orphan. Black rhinos are fiercely intolerant of other black rhinos.. his mum was introduced to a game reserve where other black rhinos already had residence. She wandered from her territory and was beaten to death by one of the others.. the baby was beaten up too but survived and was brought here. He has a goat friend to keep him company but at the stage we were there he was more interested in chasing it around and terrorising it. In a few days though he would bond with it and be mates.
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Here are a few photos from uShaka Marine World in Durban. The area with all the aquaria was set out as if you were inside a shipwreck looking out into the surrounding ocean. Very cool.
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The 'dangerous creatures' section. Gila monsters, rattle snakes, black and green mamba, chameleon, tarantulas etc etc
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This is at the Natal Sharks Board watching the dissection of a spinner shark
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One lobe of the bilobed liver.. the biggest guy in the group could hardly hold it, they're that heavy
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This is at Lion's Rock. A big cat sanctuary that takes cats out of awful conditions in bad zoos (eg Romania etc) and rehomes them here for the rest of their lives. In the morning we did a game drive. Most;y blesbok, springbok, wildebeest, zebra and ostriches were seen.
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Gumtrees are a pest in South Africa, and here are some of the newly rescued lions held in smaller enclosures to adapt to their new surroundings
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A tiger
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In the afternoon stood in for a vasectomy operation.. I had an awesome time as they forgot about the group around my lion and we got to help dart it, carry it, Xray it and we monitored its vitals for about 30 minutes before we had to change over.. Most amazing experience, especially when it stuck its head up halfway through and growled and sent everyone running except the bloke with the shotgun!
Here is the lion who we darted.. he was not happy and repeatedly charged the bars.
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I was too busy to get photos of the operation but here is one I managed to get. The lion zonked out on the operating table for an Xray
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The vulture restaurant is where they put carcasses they find (eg roadkill) to encourage the rare bearded vulture, who feeds on bones and bone marrow. There were none there when we visited.
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This is our last day before flying out, hanging out by the pool with the red tailed boa one of our mates owned. Her name is Jane and she attends every party the vet students have.. definitely the most 'friendly' snake I have ever met.. I am of the belief snakes don't love their owners, but I watched her change direction in the pool to swim over to her owner, even though there was about 10 people lined up along the pool.. weird.
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Our last sunset
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Right.. that's done! That is, I would say, the longest post ever made on APS... I'm sorry it's s long but hopefully it'll keep you busy, and thanks a lot for looking. Hope you enjoyed the photos guys!!
Cheers
Phil
PS All photos are available in full quality upon PM request so don't be shy haha
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