Zimbabwe Seven

Dear Readers,

In the time passed since our last blog we have experienced a rapid seasonal change here in Zimbabwe. Firstly, the August winds picked up which was to be expected, heralding the new season and blowing away all the dead leaves and dust. Whether it is the air of expectation or simply the noise, one thing is for sure the animals are not always comfortable in the wind. However unpleasant it may be to some, the winds always indicate that spring is on its way. Overnight temperatures rise, the sun seems hotter and the plants all suddenly burst into new buds!! Exciting times………

And no less exciting for us here at the Tikki Hywood Trust as we have had some rather early arrivals. Most unexpectedly and definitely early in the season, we are pleased to announce the arrival of 3 spikey little hoglets on Wednesday 10th September 2008! What is even more impressive about this whole event is that the hedgehog responsible is Jemima. She came to us on 27th Dec 2007 in a very bad state with a lot of spine loss and old scaring and had also just given birth prior to being transported to us. Sadly, the single little hoglet did not survive the journey and Jemima was depressed for five days after her arrival and was not eating. With a lot of TLC and the a course of antibiotics and vitamin B complex we managed to get Jemima to pick up and soon she settled in with all the other hedgehogs. Obviously she started getting on with the others a bit better than we expected!

She gave birth on 10th September 2008, which puts the conception dates approximately 6 weeks earlier : late July 2008. The birthing must have occurred around midday as when the hoglets were discovered at 4:30pm, they were all pink with little white spines apparent but still soft. The maintenance of mother and baby hedgehogs in a captive situation is extremely delicate. At any provocation, the mother hedgehog may be insecure enough to actually eat her own babies. Therefore, absolutely NO TOUCHING, no noise, no movement for at least the first 72 hours. So unfortunately readers we will only be able to show you pictures of these babies much later. But, to give you an idea what a hoglet looks like – here is a picture of one approximately one week old:

It is interesting that Jemima has chosen to give birth during the day as hedgehogs will normally give birth at night. She also changed her “accommodation” shortly before the birthing, having climbed into Moley Warp’s (one of the males) enclosure. Each hedgehog enclosure has two artificial houses which the hedgehogs can crawl into and this is where the hoglets were born. When she entered the house she was to give birth in, Jemima made an artificial door at the entrance with leaves so that no-one can peek in!

To date we are delighted, with hers and the hoglets progress. She is eating well and the babies are content as we have heard not even one squeek from inside the house. We are constantly monitoring for signs of distress – e.g. mother running around in an agitated fashion, or noises from the hoglets. If the hoglets are distressed we may have to remove them and hand-raise them, but this will only be a last resort.

The other exciting news we have is the first release of Large-spotted genets for 2008. Prior to the release, we had eight genet on the property. They are:
Munchkin – the first female that Lisa hand raised, She came to the Trust as an orphan in 2004.

Ragamuffin – arrived as an orphan in 2005. A young male approximately three weeks old on arrival, he did not tame down as much as Munchkin.  When Ragamuffin arrived he spent a week in quarantine before being integrated with Munchkin and after an initial confrontational period, the two soon settled down together.

Rascal – another orphaned male who arrived at the Trust in late 2006.  Rascal had been picked up by a dog and then rescued from the dog by the human owners. He was completely hand raised by Lisa.

Widget – yet another orphaned male that came in a month after Rascal. Due to the closeness of age, both the little boy genets were raised together and soon became inseparable.

On 3rd November 2007 – another pair of orphaned genets were brought to the Trust, a male and female. Christened Coco & Dior – these two little creatures have had a rough start to life but are now thankfully in the care of Tikki Hywood Trust.

In October 2007 Munchkin started showing signs of being pregnant.  When a female is pregnant it is important that the male is removed as he more than likely will eat the off spring even though he may be the father.  We remove the male as apposed to the female as female genets are terriorial. On 16th November 2007 Munchkin gave birth to two babies – a girl and a boy who are christened Estee & Lauder respectively.

Munch and the kids, Estee & Lauder have the largest enclosure, Rags has an enclosure with a hollowed beouganvilla tree, and Rascal and Widget have the enclosure nearest the hedgehog house. Coco and Dior reside in the cottage with Ellen.

At nearly two years old, Rascal and Widget have matured into beautiful male genets. But since our program already has a successful breeding pair, and since it is always the aim of the Trust to return animals to the wild where they belong – it was time to select the most suitable release site for the boys. This has not been an easy decision, as with all the turmoil in the country it is difficult to find a site that is going to be safe and one that is going to be suitable. After some investigating, we selected Gosho Park, in Marondera.  This is a small game park which is a school conservation project being run to the east of the country’s capital.

The boys were relocated to this release site and held in care at a private home to allow them to adjust to the new surroundings. They were moved on 17th August 2008 and were then released on 6th September 2008.  On the first night, Rascal dashed out to inspect his new surroundings, Widget beginning shy and a lot more reserved remained inside.  After Rascal had inspected his surrounding and returned for food, the enclosure was closed.  This way we hope that both the boys will know that there will always be food waiting for them if times get hard.  The next night, they both went out and did not come back to stay only to eat the food.  To date the boys are returning only to eat half of the food which is put out from them and the odd calling card in the form of urinating in their old sand box.  What is wonderful is that the boys are obviously catching their own food.

Returning a captive animal to the wild is a very emotional step, both for the animals and people involved.  There have been many years where both animal and human have connected and shared a large part of their heart and souls together.  So many things can happen, once these animals are released.  If nothing else I have learnt that being wild is hard!  With predators, fires, poaching, human dogs as well as the environmental elements such as drought, these all affect the survival of animals in the wild.  Each time we release an animal we realise once again how privileged we are to have had the time to share with  there priceless animals.