Zimbabwe Seven

Category: Serval | Date: Feb 13 2008 | By: admin

Muffet : Received in April 2000 and released in June 2006 at Stone Hills Sanctuary, Marula.
Tigger: Received in April 2000, littermate to Muffet, released in August 2004 on Cawston Ranch.
Tom Cat: Received as an adult male problematic animal from ostrich farm. Received in 2000 and was soft released on Triandra in 2000.
Bakita: born in March 2000, she was received as an orphan along with her littermate, William. She was released on Triandra in 2001 and later mated with Tom Cat in the wild.

William: born in March 2000 and received as an orphan along with littermate Bakita. These two kittens were raised at the same time as Muffet and Tigger at the Trust.

Cleo: Rescued adult female, came to Trust amidst land issues in mid 2002 via Mukuvisi Woodlands Wildlife park, Harare. For a wild born cat she settled into captivity and had a gentle and loving nature. She produced 5 litters with William, but unfortunately died in September 2006 before she could be released.

Zoey: Received in early 2002 as a year old serval as a donation from another facility, she remained a nervous cat. Unexpectedly she died in May 2002, after having spend a short few months with the Trust. Cause of death is not conclusive.

Tilly: Raised at another wildlife orphanage facility, Tilly came to the Trust as a mature serval. Ideally, she was going to form part of a breeding nucleus at Chedgelow Farm together with Esmeralda and Duke. Esmeralda released herself prematurely, leaving Duke and Tilly in the enclosure together. Duke mated with Tilly, but she subsequently lost all three kittens. It was then decided to bring Tilly back to the Trust and let her breed again to see if she could have another litter successfully. Back at the Trust she bred with Geronimo to produce a litter of 3. One of the babies was extremely small and died shortly after birth. The second survived for ten days and then died, cause unknown. Tilly ate both dead kittens (which is expected) but the third survived and is a happy, healthy female – Arwen. When Arwen was old enough to be weaned Tilly was then relocated to the Mavuradohna release site with Geronimo. They mated once again there but tragically the kittens did not survive. Tilly was released in May 2007 from the enclosure collared and was unfortunately killed in June 2007.

Tilly & Arwen

Gandalf : Obtained from Private Farm in Goromonzi, a chicken farm, in April 2007. The farmer thought a snake killing his chickens, went to dig out ’snake burrow’ and found two male serval kittens approximately one month old. The farmer was going to destroy them but was persuaded to allow them to come to Tikki Hywood Trust. Birth date was then estimated to be sometime in March 2007. They were raised at the Trust until Gandalf was separated from his sibling as he was very aggressive and it was hoped that by separating them they might calm down. Both young serval were then subsequently relocated to Bushman Rock Estates release site for their eventual release.

Bilbo: Sibling to Gandalf, born in March 2007. Bilbo was raised at the Trust until moved to Bushman Rock Estates release site with his brother. It is hoped that Bilbo will mate with Shenzi at the release site before his release.

Bilbo & Gandalf orphans

OFFSPRING BORN THROUGH TRUST BREEDING

Matings of Cleo & William:

1st Litter : Born on 20th August 2002, one female kitten was born and she only lived for 5 days. A post-mortem was performed and it seems the baby died of lack of food.

2nd Litter: Born on 25th January 2003, a male and female. These kittens were hand raised by Lisa as Cleo did not seem to accept them. This is often the case with inexperienced mothers in the wild.
Geronimo: Mated with other females in the program before being collared and taken to a soft release boma in the Mavuradohna wilderness area in November 2006. Was released in early 2007.
Esmeralda: Was never bred to any of the other males in the program as she had an aggressive nature and this is brought into consideration for captive breeding. She was taken to Chedgelow Farm for release but managed to release herself early from the enclosure. She has been sighted on the farm since.

3rd Litter: Born on 7th June 2003 , a female kitten.
Makaviti: Makaviti was Cleo’s second litter and she performed the labour and raising by herself with no difficulties or any of the stress seen with her first litter. Makaviti was always destined to be released as soon as possible. She was released on Cawston Ranch in the Nyamandlovu region in Sep 2004.

4th Litter: Born on 17th December 2003, a single male kitten.
Rumpole : Also raised by his mother Cleo, grew up without any complications and was placed in the release program at Cawston Ranch in September 2004 along with his older sibling Makaviti.

5th Litter: Born on 29th August 2004, 4 kittens, all males!
Oscar: Was a weak kitten at birth and was rejected by his mother Cleo. Lisa continued to hand raise him (whilst Cleo continued to raise the other 3 males herself). Oscar unfortunately died at one month old and post mortem revealed that he had kidney malfunction and water on the brain.
Ed , Scar , Zazu: Cleo raised these three kittens until they were 3 months old and then abandoned them. Lisa then raised them until they were old enough to go into an enclosure by themselves and they were released together on Triandra in May 2005.

Matings of Muffet & William:

1st Litter: Born on 12th august 2003, two kittens, male and female.
Duke: As is the case with a lot of first litters, Muffet had no interest in the kittens and they were subsequently hand-raised by Lisa. Duke was relocated to Chedgelow Farm for release once he was mature and subsequently mated with Tilly who was in the same enclosure. After mating, Duke released himself out of the enclosure on 6th February 2006.
Duchess: This serval was unfortunately born with a condition known as myopathy (inverted eyelashes). From the ages of three weeks until two months old, all the eyelashes that grew had to be plucked out manually by Lisa with tweezers otherwise infection would set in and her eyes would run continuously. Duchess endured the daily distress of plucking out her eyelashes with an amazing amount of tolerance, although it was painful for her and she cried she never fought with or retaliated against Lisa’s ministrations. She was later operated on to solve the problem and it was a success. It was decided to allow her to mate at the Trust to see if her condition was genetically transferable to her offspring. For this reason she was introduced to Sarabi. Unfortunately, something went very wrong and the outcome was that Duchess had broken the radius and ulna of her right front leg.

2nd Litter: Born on 20th November 2003, male and female.
Mungo: He was a very inquisitive, playful, healthy kitten who looked just like his mother. His destiny was always to be released and this was achieved in Sept 2004 at Cawston Ranch.
Jerry: She was very much more distant than her litter mate Mungo and never really seemed to feel the need to interact with humans. She was successfully released in Sep 2004 at Cawston Ranch.

Matings of Tilly & Duke:

1st Litter : Born on 1st November 2004 3 kittens, sex all unkown and none survived the first day.

Matings of Tilly & Geronimo:

1st Litter: Born on 1st June 2006, 3 kittens, 2 unkown sex, 1 female. Only the last female survived.
Arwen: She was the healthiest of the three kittens and was successfully raised by her mother Tilly. Arwen remains with us at the Trust in the hopes of becoming a breeding female but she will be destined for release after producing her first litter.

2nd Litter: Born on 4th February 2007 2 kittens, both only survived till 7th February 2007 and then died. They were eaten by Tilly.

Matings of Muffet & Geronimo:

1st Litter: 1 female kitten born on 30th August 2004.

Nala: She had a very dark undercoat, rather than being golden with black spots she tended toward dark brown with very black spots and stripes. She was a big, shy cat and spent most of her time up trees. Her mother, Muffet, who was very dominant over her, raised her and they had to be separated at eight months as they were fighting all the time. She was then moved to a release enclosure at Stone Hills Sanctuary where she mated with Sarabi and produced three kittens which she abandoned. (They were then hand raised). She was collared and released from the enclosure in June 2006.

2nd Litter: Born on 12th October 2005, one male and one female.

Rafiki: . Like Nala who is also from Muffet and Geronimo, his coat was a dark golden colour with very black spots. Rafiki, was a healthy kitten who never had any problems. He was raised by his mother but became quite tame. Due to lack of a genetically independent female there was no one for Rafiki to breed with so he was always destined to go for an early release.
He and Muffet were released at Stone Hills in June 2006.

Rafiki

Isabella: Isabella was Rafiki’s littermate, she was rejected by her mother and then hand raised by Lisa until she died at five weeks old. The cause of death is uncertain.

Matings of Sarabi and Nala:

1st litter: Born on 15th April 2006. 3 kittens, two males and one female.

Pumba: After giving birth and allowing the kittens to take a little colostrum, Nala abandoned the kittens, as is quite common with first litters. The kittens were then taken away for hand rearing. Unfortunately they were started on a different milk formula than the one developed by the Trust and they were exposed to bacteria which caused them to become very ill. When the gut infection was diagnosed all three kittens were immediately put onto antibiotics, but sadly it was too late for Pumba and he died on 1st May 2006.

Mufasa: Fortunately was stronger than his male sibling and survived the bacterial infection. He has grown into a beautiful cat with a very calm and gentle nature and we hope that he will take on the role of primary breeding male at the Trust. It is hoped that he will produce his first litter with Arwen.

Mufasa

Shenzi: She has grown into a beautiful cat, with a more forceful personality than her brother. She is very intelligent and has been known to be quite stubborn, but since she was disciplined once, has been much more responsive. She is very well collar trained and will walk with any of her carers. Due to a lack of suitable breeding partners currently at the Trust, Shenzi was relocated to a release site Bushman Rock. It is hoped that she will breed with one of the orphan males, Bilbo and produce a litter before she is collared and released.

Shenzi