WEB Vetnews May 2015

Story I Storie

The Flying Syringe (Part 1) Dr Raoul van der Westhuizen Reprinted with permission from the book “Veld Stories” (ISBN 978-0-620-55784-9), published by and available from Kejafa Knowledge Works (www.kejafa.co.za). “The Flying Syringe” is Chapter 4 in the book, and will be published in VetNews in three parts.

T n 1963 a UK veterinarian, Dr Tony Harthoorn, came to the Kruger National Park in South Africa to test a new drug that could be used to immobilise wildlife. It was called M99 and turned out to be a wonder drug. He later published his experiences in his book “The Flying Syringe”. In the same year of 1963, my old friend Dave Longland and I were fourth-year veterinary students at Onderstepoort, the world-famous veterinary research institute and faculty. We did not have the luxury of free holidays and had to work with veterinarians in various fields. That year we had to work with a government veterinarian. Dave and I went through the list of state veterinarians. “Look!” said Dave, “there is a state veterinarian at Skukuza.” “Wow, let’s go there!” Skukuza was and still is the main camp and administrative centre of the Kruger National Park. Our field service period was in December and part of January, when a large part of the Park was closed to tourists because of malaria. So we applied to go to Skukuza. The faculty bosses were very reluctant to comply with our unusual choice and claimed that it was not typical government veterinary work. We countered that it was of international importance, at least because of the presence of foot-and-mouth disease in the national park, which bordered on major cattle ranching areas. So in the end they had to accede. Dave and I worked as technical

assistants to the veterinarian, Dr Johan van Niekerk. We came to know the technical staff of the Park – young scientists such as Dr U deV (Tol) Pienaar (whose sister Annelise was also a vet), Neil Fairall, Piet van Wyk (who had a “tame” spitting cobra in his office) and Peet van der Walt. They have since become international­ ly recognised for their break-through work in various fields of science and conservation, and they have authored several books and countless scientific publications. The park head was Mr Dolf Brynard, a courteous and kind man but a solid scientist and very competent manager whose “yes” was “yes” and “no” was “no”. He also hailed from my town of birth, Calvinia in the Hantam Karoo, and I got on very well with him. In later years he was a driving force in the establishment of several national parks in which I was involved, including the Karoo Park at Beaufort West. Johan van Niekerk showed us how to immobilise wild animals with various tranquillizers and hypnotic drugs. The drugs were not simple to work with and most had severe side effects and a slow recovery time. On one occasion the working staff stole the meat of an impala which had been immobilised and kept for post mortem and ate the meat. Later Johan van Niekerk received an urgent call for help because the staff had been paralysed from the tainted Picture above: Dr Johan van Niekerk, who was the first veterinarian stationed in the Kruger National Park, with the first wild zebra to be immobilised with the wonder drug M99 (etorphine)

meat and had to be rushed to hospital in Nelspruit! Dave and I had the privilege of viewing the release of rhinos from the Natal Parks Board in the

Dr Dave Longland

presence of the son of the legendary Harry Wolhuter, who was the first game ranger in the Park and who, back in 1904, killed a lion with a knife. Dr Dave Longland remembers: “In 1900 there were only a hundred rhino left in South Africa. As a result of one of the most successful conservation programmes of all times by the Natal Parks Board, the population of this magnificent animal had by 1960 recovered from the brink of extinction and the Board could start relocating rhinos to the Kruger National Park, where they had meanwhile become extinct. This relocation was done under the most difficult of circumstances. How the Natal Parks staff managed to cap­ ture these animals with the available drugs is mind-boggling. The drugs they used included Scoline and Themalon. How they manoeuvred the half-paralyzed rhinos into a truck was in itself a special feat! They captured them in the afternoon, then trans­ ported them during the night and the next morning they were released in the Kruger National Park. When the drugs started wearing off (and in the absence of modern tranquillizers) the animals became very aggressive and to release them safely from the transport truck was a

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Mei/May 2015