Zimbabwe Seven

Category: Serval | Date: Apr 23 2008 | By: admin

The Tikki Hywood Trust is delighted to report that Frodo is now in the final stage of being released. On the 12 April 2008, Frodo was sedated, for what we hope will be the last time in his life and fitted with a radio collar. Once he was crated, Frodo travelled to the Matendere Ranch which is situated in the SAVÉ Valley in the Southeast Lowveld of Zimbabwe.

For all of us this was a very happy day. As Frodo has not only been incredibly patient and brave but has survived an ordeal second to none on his road to recovery. Over the years I have come to realise that sometimes an animal enters your life, and you are the one who has to learn a tremendous lesson. Frodo, I believe has been one such lesson for me. Since his accident we have seen an awe-inspiring will to over come all the difficult obstacles which he was presented with. Frodo’s recovery is not only about him overcoming a broken limb, but how Frodo taught us to be better at the undertaking of returning animals back to the wild.

The mentality of a wild animal is one which still has so much misunderstanding I believe. Only to often we as humans, are arrogant enough to assume that we know what is best for an animal. The question is: “do we”? With 14 years of working with wild animals, I can quite honestly say that for me, each animal is different and with that comes a unique character. So to generalize is not possible, but with a guideline of how difficult it is to survive in the wild as a wild animal we have to make sure we have given each animal destined for release the best possible opportunity. With Frodo, even though his injuries are against his release into the wild, the fact that he came from the wild is an enormous bonus. This young serval had survived, if not well he had made it to at least 6 months of age on his own.

For any wild animal to come from an environment of no rules and unlimited space, then to a crate and complete and utter capture – must in itself be nothing short of complete mental anguish. Yet Frodo, who entered our lives from the wild and remained in a crate for 23 days, began to feed from our hands with the use of tweezers, drink milk (which contained his daily antibiotics and sedatives) from a bowl. He allowed us to spray wound spray on his bare and exposed hind leg wounds. During this all I asked myself, “what innocence allows an animal to trust us to such an extent? What must be going through Frodo’s mind whilst we went through the daily routine of dressing his wounds, feeding him and moving him from one crate to another so that we could clean?” I have no answers, only admiration for this animal.

In conclusion to Frodo and his final release, we at the Trust have gained a tremendous amount of experience. As with any animal the emotive side, is huge and affects each and every one of us differently. It has to be said that there have been many a moment when I wondered whether we were doing the right thing by Frodo. Operation after operation, close confinement, trauma and then again more trauma! My heart has on so many occasions gone out to Frodo. Were we really doing what was right for Frodo or rather what we felt was right for us? This is a hard and strong question but one which we at the Trust have to ask on so many occasions. After much deliberation it was decided that with Frodo we would stop at nothing except to do everything in our capabilities to return him to the wild as a healthy animal. For me Frodo has been a great patient and teacher. There is a remarkable difference between a captive born animal and a wild animal brought into captivity. There is an extreme potential for stress to be caused and one thing our experience with Frodo’s has confirmed, is that no wild animal should ever be taken out of its natural environment for any reason what so ever!!! The stress is far too much; at this point we do not know what the long term physiological results will be to Frodo. However by collaring him we will be able to monitor his progress back into the wild. It is vital to collect the data on Frodo once he has been released to see how he can fend for himself as well as to see how he is able to interact with other serval and the other wild animals in the area where we have released him. Has Frodo been a success? From a surgical point of view – yes, from being released it is too soon for us to know. What I do know is that right now Frodo is more content than he has been for the past six months. He is in a wild enclosure, with the sounds of the wild surrounding him both day and night, natural prey such as guinea fowl and doves for supper and more importantly, space. For now my heart rests a littler easier for Frodo than it has done in the last six months.

With any project, great efforts are made by many people. What each person brings to a wild animals, return to the wild is immense. Frodo’s return has been made possible due to the support of so many of you. The Tikki Hywood Trust would like to sincerely thank you all and the following people and organisations, without whom Frodo would not have made it this far.

Note the photo below showing Frodo’s leg all healed.

This is Frodo’s leg after the final operation.

Frodo’s return to the wild has been a joint venture with the AWARE Trust. The Tikki Hywood Trust would like to thank Dr Keith Dutlow and Dr Lisa Marabini of the AWARE Trust for their hard work and persistence towards the long road to recovery of Frodo over the past six months. Dr Keith Dutlow and Dr Lisa Marabini of the AWARE Trust performed surgery on Frodo, and covered his surgical expenses. The AWARE Trust also paid for the majority of the medical treatment of Frodo, and constructed a convalescing enclosure for him.

Beit Trust
Brilley Nicholson
Chris Foggin
Croplink
Department of National Parks & Wildlife Management
Geoff and Kim Hoody
Irvines Chickens
Judy and Leon du Plessis
Mim Bauman
Paule and Kim Wolf
Save Australia

Note to Readers,

Thank you all for reading about Frodo. For those who might be further interested, we can email  you a spreadsheet detailing major events and operations.

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 13 2008 | By: admin

Dear Readers,

Something very exciting is happing for us at the Trust - Lisa is currently in the southern part of the country preparing a very special young serval for release. You may or may not recall a young male serval we talked about in a past newsletter  (Dec 07) who was hit by a car. Frodo has undergone several major surgeries in an effort to fix a broken leg. He is finally in good enough shape to move to a soft release enclosure. He was immobilized and collared on 12th April 2008 and as I write is being settled into his new tempory home. Lisa will give a full report when she gets back, so please keep your fingers crossed for Frodo that it all goes well.

In the meantime, we have mentioned a number of times how we have had difficulty  uploading photos. However, we have managed to get some up. We hope these images will amuse and inspire you all, they came with a lot of perservence and sweat and patience…….

Send us your comments - we are always encouraged when we hear from you all.

This is Fuzzy Peg - sweet little teacup hedgehog!

This is Asia, ”supermodel” African wild cat whom we hope will bond soon with Siam, the red African wild cat male.

This is the handsome boy himself - Siam, red African wild cat.

This is Atlantic, African wild cat male being collared by Lisa.

Atlantic in recovery after having a collar fitted.

This is Mr. Pigling Bland, male hedgehog enjoying a bit of sun.

Bilbo - young male serval at release site Bushman Rock Estates.

Coco (left - female) & Dior (right - male) orphaned genets.

Moley Warp - male hedgehog on a stroll in the garden.

Rafiki, the handsome half king serval male.

Arwen - young female serval.

Starsky - top breeding male African wild cat at the Trust.

Rascal the pensive - young male large-spotted genet.

Francis - African civet female in her house.

Phiri - baby Lichtenstein’s Hartebeest male (See Dec 07 newsletter).

Finally - little cutie after a meal…… Baby Southern African hedgehog.

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 05 2008 | By: admin

March 2008 will be burnt into the minds and hearts of many Zimbabwean’s all around the world. Once again Zimbabwe and her people sit in the abeyance whilst history is made. We sit in fear and anticipation, awaiting an outcome, which can be one of two things; to be given the ability of dreaming once again and rebuilding our country or being forced into making plans, jumping hurdles with no end in sight. Should it be the latter, those of us who are committed to this country and her wildlife, will once again face many obstacles in the hope of trying to conserve and preserve the wildlife which remains.

The unfortunate reality of Zimbabwe is that her once proud people have now been forced into seeking help and assistance from further a field. Without the outside world’s interest in Zimbabwe, there would be many more people and wildlife suffering at the merciless hands of the current situation. We at the Tikki Hywood Trust are just one of many organisations who are now not able to source funding locally due to the economic pressures facing local industry. Thanks to the many people such as yourselves, we hope to be able to continue our plight towards Zimbabwe’s endangered wildlife.

Since the Trust’s inception, our priority has, and will always be, the welfare of the animals who we come in contact with. Reality is; record breaking hyperinflation, 80% or more unemployment, non-availability of basic food stuff, in the face of all of this and with the daily struggle to keep afloat, the last thing on most people’s mind is supporting a wildlife NGO’s. However due to the wonder of modern technology we still have a voice which can be heard in the international arena and this is thanks to Wildlife Direct.

With this in mind, we hope to draw you, the reader, closer to the nature of our work. Even more so, we wish to give you an upfront and personal insight into each and every animal who not only make up part of our family but who go onto helping their species to survive!

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