Day 11: Hippo Capture!

 Today was exciting! We were going with Rita to capture and transport 2 hippos at Tshkudu, where we worked last week. The reserve has too many hippos; there are not enough resources to support them all, so they are relocating 3. One was moved previously, one is at a dam and confined via an electric fence, and the third is somewhere out there--nobody has seen the rest of the pod for a couple of days.

Hippo darting is extremely challenging. First, of course, hippos are exceedingly dangerous. They kill and injure more people in Africa each year than the rest of the  Big 5 (rhino, elephant, lion, and leopard) combined. Secondly, they use their ability to remain underwater to their advantage. Hippos can submerge fully for 5-8 minutes, emerge for a breath, and re-submerge, making them difficult to dart. Their exposed skin on their backs is so tough that darts tend to bounce off. And sending a dart into water changes its trajectory and often causes misses. Add to this that these animals are HUGE (this cow was estimated to weigh around 2500-3000 pounds), and the drugs needed to tranquilize them are expensive, so one prefers not to miss. Fortunately, even sedated hippos retain their diving reflex, which means that they won't sleep so deeply that they drown if dosed correctly. And of course, this hippo needs to be put into a trailer for transport. It is too dangerous to partially reverse her and attempt to walk her into the trailer as with rhinos and giraffes, so she needs to be towed to the trailer and slid inside. Fortunately, this hippo is alone in this water body--it is unsafe to attempt to work with a hippo when the rest of the pod is around. However, we did suspect at least a couple of smaller crocodiles were sharing the water with her. 

We drove to Tshukudu as the sun rose over the hills and boulders, and drove to the bush camp. We transferred ourselves and our coolers and supplies to a large game viewer, taking enough to be at the site for a long time. Darting hippos can be quite a waiting game. We drove through the reserve to the dam where the hippo was; some of the team was already there waiting for us. They included some Tshukudu staff and Andre, 2 of his sons, and other team members from Parawild Capture. Our students  have worked with Andre before with hippos and giraffes, and last year in an attempt to dart another hippo (unsuccessful--we were unable to get near enough or find her underwater to dart her). 

Much planning and preparation preceded the darting; a raft was available at the edge of the dam, the trailer was nearby, and everyone had an escape plan in case the hippo charged. In addition, most members of the capture team were armed. The hippo was initially visible in the fairly shallow water from the shoreline, so Rita took advantage of the moment and placed a first dart in the hippo's cheek muscle (one of the only muscles accessible in a submerged hippo). The hippo apparently did not appreciate this, and became quite agitated. She attempted to charge at least once (we were at a safe distance and on our vehicle, and could not see all of this). 

Then we waited for the drugs to take effect, knowing that several more darts would likely be needed to completely sedate her. After 20 minutes or so, she became still in the water, but was easily aroused by sights and sounds around her, and was still pretty actively walking intermittently. Rita placed a second dart at the back of the neck, causing agitation again. Again, waiting for drugs to take effect. 

As the hippo became more sedate in the water, the team unloaded a raft (platform on empty 55-gallon drums) to allow a semi-safer approach to administer the final drugs. Rita and one of Andre's sons boarded the raft, and Andre and the other son got behind it in the water and very slowly walked out, pushing the raft in front of them. The object was to get Rita into position to either inject directly with a pole syringe, or to fire a final dart. Then the hippo would be roped by the tail (there aren't really any good places to put a rope around a hippo--they are smooth, egg-shaped and slippery!) and urged toward the trailer. 

As the raft approached the first time, the hippo roused and moved away. Retreat.  More waiting. Even slower approach by the raft. Less response from the hippo. Closer, pause, slowly closer, pause, slowly, slowly even a bit closer. When they judged that they were about as close as they could get, Rita placed a final dart, to a minimal response from the animal. Waiting for that drug to take effect. Simultaneously, we watched for bubbles to emerge from the hippo's exhalation, and timed her poking her nose up to take a breath. A respiratory rate of 1 per 5 minutes is not good news in most species, but in hippos, that indicated that she was stable. When such interesting and exciting things are happening, it can be difficult to remember that routine monitoring of the patient is vital; there is no success if the capture looks good but the patient dies!

Once the hippo was not responding to the raft, one of the younger men lay down on the raft and reached over the edge with a rope. He placed a series of anti-slip knots around the hippo's tail, and secured the rope to the raft (in a way that it could be released quickly if necessary!). Again, minimal reaction from the hippo. Then the entire team grasped the cable running from the raft to the shore, and began to haul the raft, towing the hippo, toward shore and the trailer. At first the hippo reacted a bit, so Andre stopped the progress and every-so-carefully placed a blindfold over the hippo's eyes, and tucked the ends into her ears as earplugs. Unfortunately, fabric draped over slick hippos in the water gets displaced pretty easily, so he secured the blindfold with a short ratchet strap. Hauling in resumed. It took about 20 people hauling on the cable for all they were worth to get the hippo near the trailer. 

The trailer was backed into the water, and heavy rubber stretchers were placed as makeshift ramps leading up the small step into the trailer. The fit seemed impossibly tight--that trailer looked to fit that hippo like a second skin! However, I had seen Andre walk a giraffe into something about the size of a standard 2-horse trailer, so I had little doubt that he would succeed. The hippo was untied from the raft, and the rope run in through the back of the trailer and out through the front, and attatched to the hitch on the back of the bakkie. Some steady rope work had her in the trailer and the back door closed in minutes.

The tractor and bakkie pulled the trailer up and out of the water, and it was unhitched from the tractor and hitched to the bakkie for transport. Then of course all of the equipment had to be gathered, cleaned, loaded and organized. Meanwhile, we drove back to the bush lodge and went out to the viewing platform again and watched the rhino cow and her calf napping just outside the clearing. There were also a number of vultures soaring and landing, and we saw and heard a fish eagle as well.

The plan was then to go and dart the second hippo. However, land and air searches had failed to turn up the hippo pod. The small fixed-wing aircraft had not spotted the hippos, so it was thought that a helicopter search would prove necessary. No helicopter was available at that time, so that would have to be scheduled. We adjourned to a nearby restaraunt for cool drinks and snacks while some of Tshukudu's staff made a final ground search for our other hippo. No luck. 

A quick stop at the grocery store on our way home, and we still had a couple hours of free time before supper. Free time has been rare, so everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Supper was again braai: steak over an open fire, braaibroodjie (Pronounced bry brickies--toasted sandwiches of cheese, tomato, onion and chutney), potato salad, roast veggies and tossed salad. Even with all the fresh air and exercise, we are all quite sure that we gained a bit of weight!

We are all feeling our time here slipping quickly away. Most also miss home and pets to at least some degree, but we all know that it will be very hard to leave this amazing adventure behind and go on to the next!