• Environment

Enhancing capacity, one veterinarian at a time

- 2022-06-08 10:55:00

Have you ever darted a giraffe from a helicopter or moved a sable antelope? Have you fitted a GPS satellite tracking device to an elephant or an oryx? And have you done all of this in a single day?
Eight young African wildlife veterinarians who recently participated in a 10-day hands-on training course organised by the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF) in collaboration with the University of Namibia (UNAM), Namibia University of Science & Technology (NUST), African Wildlife Conservation Trust (AWCT) and the Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry & Tourism (MEFT), will answer with a resounding YES to all these questions.
During the highly interactive field time at the Etosha Heights Private Reserve, these young veterinarians were directly involved in building their capacity through an array of wildlife capture, collaring, tagging, moving of animals and much more, while at the same time supporting the conservation management of one of Namibia’s largest private reserves.
As the leader in giraffe conservation, GCF implements and/or supports giraffe conservation initiatives in 17 African countries, often working closely with wildlife veterinarians. While most African countries don’t necessarily have a shortage of veterinarians, few have specialised skills or experience in wildlife veterinary medicine.
Based on their collaborative conservation programmes, GCF and other organisations have brought in wildlife veterinary expertise from Southern Africa to assist and help build local capacity when implementing critical conservation projects.
Long-term impact
GCF was determined to make a long-term impact by providing young African vets the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in wildlife immobilisation, hosted in Namibia by some of the industry’s leading experts. The eight aspiring wildlife vets from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, and Uganda, four members of the MEFT game capture team, four wildlife ecologists and seven highly experienced wildlife vets as mentors worked collaboratively to share skills and experiences, and at the same time provide invaluable conservation support at Etosha Heights Private Reserve in Namibia, one of the country’s largest private reserves.
This opportunity was made possible by GCF who fully funded the participation of the vets and invited them to Namibia for the training.
“Veterinary interventions are often a key part of our work,” says Dr Julian Fennessy, Conservation Director of GCF. “Giraffe can be particularly difficult to immobilise due to their unique physiology. To ensure their safety, we often bring our own vet or experts along if there is not sufficient experience in the country. The problem is not a lack of local vets, but often there is limited expertise in wildlife or simply a lack of confidence – confidence that can only be developed through experience. It was with this in mind that we developed this hands-on practical course here in Namibia to build these future African conservation leaders who collectively work in more than 1.3 billion hectares of land.
Conservation
“Wildlife in Africa can ultimately only be conserved by African people – they simply need the relevant skills and opportunities to do this effectively,” added Dr Sara Ferguson, lead veterinarian, during the course and GCF’s Conservation Health Coordinator. “Upskilling young Africans provides an important step towards this goal and is particularly important for wildlife veterinarians, who play a critical role in conservation.”
During the training, the vets took the lead during the immobilisiations of most individual animals under the guidance of one of the expert vet mentors. Prior to each immobilisation, drug protocols and appropriate darting equipment were discussed, and each operation (ground- or helicopter-based) carefully planned before putting the plan into action.
“The adage ‘I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand’ is particularly relevant in the wildlife veterinary arena, for it is only through the actual acts of planning and executing the immobilisation of a wild animal that the veterinarian fully hones his or her skills in the face of challenging situations,” says Dr Mark Jago, Senior Lecturer at UNAM's School of Veterinary Medicine.
“To this end registering all participants with the Namibian Veterinary Council to be able to carry out wild animal immobilisations under supervision was an invaluable advantage to this course.
“It was a privilege to be part of something where young veterinarians demonstrate knowledge, passion and skill in abundance, and there are few things as rewarding as being part of an opportunity for passionate professionals to take their skill set to the next level. The experience is particularly exciting when an NGO such as GCF teams up with a university such as the University of Namibia’s School of Veterinary Medicine and a number of other highly experienced partners in the wildlife field,” Jago said.
So much more
Capturing and moving sable antelope and waterbuck between camps on Etosha Heights Private Reserve, and fitting eland, African savannah elephant, gemsbok, Angolan giraffe, and Hartmann’s Mountain zebra with tracking devices for remote monitoring and much more were part of the field course.
During this course, Ceres or Ceres Wild GPS satellite ear tags were deployed – in most cases for the first-time ever for the species in the wild. Handling and target practice with different dart projector models – both from the ground, in a vehicle, and from a helicopter – were another valuable aspect of the course, as were the many targeted and general discussions on topics such as the ethics of wildlife tagging, policies and legislation, conservation science and management, and importantly, partnership development.
Each of the young veterinarians brought along a host of real-life experiences from their respective workplace and country, allowing everyone to also build an important network of peers for future information exchange, and an impressive resource of knowledge to tap into when back home.
Precursor
The field course was preceded by a three-day continuing professional development (CPD) lecture-based course in Windhoek that was also attended by an additional 30 Namibian veterinarians and para-veterinarians and co-hosted by the UNAM School of Veterinary Medicine and GCF.
This course was tailored to wildlife practitioners looking to keep up to date with current techniques and best practices for successful wildlife operation, as well as veterinarians wishing to gain a better understanding of wildlife medicine in Namibia. Lectures were presented by staff of UNAM’s School of Veterinary Medicine and a number of experienced private veterinarians working with wildlife in Namibia.