Mikumi National Park (Wed, July 22)

We got up bright and early and piled in our safari vehicles to head into the park for a day of giraffe immobilizations. The short drive into the park from Tan-Swiss was beautiful just after sunrise, and we spotted lots of the same animals as we saw on our drive in the previous day. We headed into the interior of the park, to the park headquarters where they have the staff lodging and a building with a conference room. We stopped on the way for a while to watch a Maasai giraffe, two cape buffalo, and a few impala grazing and browsing together outside the park headquarters.

Cape buffalo outside park headquarters

Once we parked and got out of the trucks, we loitered around for a long time, watching the vervet monkeys playing in the trees behind the building, a maribou stork wandering around by hanging laundry, and storm clouds slowly rolling in. Finally all the professors and field veterinarians arrived, the powerpoint was set up, and we went inside for an orientation to Mikumi, and a briefing on our plans for the immobilization. Despite having a nice modern and technologically sound powerpoint presentation, we still had to run outside to the squat toilets for our bathroom break. Dr. Vitalis Lyaruu, the Southern Zone veterinarian for Tanzania's national parks, and Dr. Donald Mpanduji, a lecturer at Sokoine University, explained to us that the giraffes in Mikumi have, in the past few years, been victim of a new ear disease that causes inflammation and subsequent necrosis of the pinna. They were trying to figure out the prevalence and etiology of this disease. So this morning and tomorrow morning, we'd be going out into the park to find giraffes that had not yet had their ears examined and sampled, and immobilize them to collect blood and ear tissue samples.

We were split up into two teams, planning for each team to go with one of the vets who would each dart a giraffe. I started on B team, but was switched to A team for one of the big guys who would do the roping for B team. We divyed up the jobs--the restraint and roping team going to the boys, and the sample collecting, measurements, and anesthesia monitoring to the girls. I was set to do measurements with Nike--measuring the head to base of tail, shoulder height, and chest girth. The roping teams practiced their technique a number of times on people acting as giraffes, and the sample collectors went over techniques with the vets.

The roping team practicing their technique on Vanessa, a "tall Chinese giraffe"

By the time we were finally ready to go, it was already 11:30, and we were supposed to be back for lunch by noon. With some signals crossed, some people got in trucks expecting to go back to Tan-Swiss, and some of us got in expecting that we might still find a giraffe that presented a good darting opportunity and go ahead with it. Lo and behold, about five minutes down the road, there was a large male giraffe browsing right by the side of the road, and Dr. Mpanduji quickly darted him.

Our giraffe and the darting Rover, just after darting

After about ten minutes of slow-speed giraffe pursuit, he was showing signs of going down, and we started assembling the roping team. Only then did we realize that Val was in one of the trucks that wasn't with us, and the roping team was short one person. Obviously, I jumped right in a volunteered. Without any warning, Alphonse (one of the Tanzanian Envirovet staff leaders) popped out of the lead truck and started running toward the giraffe with the rope. The rest of our roping team was in the last truck, and we sprinted out at top speed to catch up with Alphonse and the rope. We wrapped and pulled and ran and ducked, and in a flurry of legs and neck the giraffe toppled, like the big robot things in the Star Wars movie. I left my post restraining the hind legs with Fidy and Julius, and Nike and I gathered the measurements. This was no easy task, since the giraffe was still kicking and twitching, and one of its hooves was easily the size of my head.

Giraffe during anesthesia

Within just about ten minutes, Dr. Lyaruu was ready to reverse the giraffe, although Fidy and Julius were still unwrapping the rope from the hind legs, and there was still a needle in the jugular for the blood draw. We quickly finished, and a few seconds after Dr. Lyaruu reversed, the giraffe was up and running into the distance.

The A Team!

Team B caught up with us just after the giraffe had run off, a little upset that we'd had the good luck to find a perfect opportunity and they had missed out. After a little celebration and patting ourselves on the back, we took off in the trucks again to try to find a giraffe for Team B. Unfortunately, our luck didn't hold, and we headed back to Tan-Swiss after driving around the park for an hour or so.

After lunch we had an afternoon and evening full of lectures. A combination of jet lag, waking up at 6 am, and coming down from the adrenaline rush left me--and many others in the group--exhausted all afternoon. I think lots of people were nearing the end of their patience, especially since half the group was really frustrated by not having the chance to do the immobilization today, so there were some quick tempers in our discussions this evening, and in debriefing about the immobilization. I certainly was ready for some quiet, resting time, and by about 9 pm, I was absolutely ready for bed.