Animal Welfare South Africa Project #55883

Help Feed Sick and Injured Wildlife

by Scales Conservation Fund NPC

Project Report | Mar 20, 2023
ReWild Patient Stories

By Amy Aucamp-Clark | Campaign Manager

Sticky Monkey

This last quarter has seen many new intakes at the centre due to it being breeding season. Most of the patients that have come in have been orphans who were unable to be reunited with their parents, or injured juviniles that have had accidents as they have been pushed out to start making their way on their own. We wanted to share with you two stories that stuck our over the last few months.

Sticky Monkey

We thought we’d kick off this report with a very cute Lesser bushbaby. He was given him the nickname ‘Sticky Monkey’, bushbabys urinate on their hands making them pretty sticky. This is believed to be part of how they mark their territory but likely also improves grip when leaping through the trees. Bushbabys can cover around 2,5m in a single jump. This little ‘Sticky monkey’ was found on the ground after a storm. Attempts to reunite him with his mom were unsuccessful, no bushbabys came back looking for him. Once he comes of age he will be released back in the wild.

Juliet

Janka and Romeo arrived at their holiday home in the African bush to find two bats in the bathroom basin. Dehydration and starvation had already claimed the life of the one bat but the other was still alive. The surviving bat didn’t look so thin, not because she wasn’t starving but because she was heavily pregnant. Janka called ReWild and we arranged to meet them halfway to us. Janka loves all animals, Romeo on the other hand wasn’t sure he was all that crazy about bats.

Juliet the Free-tailed bat took a long time recovering her body condition and strength, she not only had to recover the lost weight but was trying to do so whilst also feeding a rather large foetus inside her belly. We wanted Juliet to go home before she had her baby, every time we saw her we were relieved to see she was still sporting a huge tummy.

Janka asked us how they could humanely remove the bats from roosting in their roof. We explained to Janka how the bats are persecuted for roof roosting in South Africa. Even if we humanely excluded the bats from her roof after the breeding season was over they may take up residence in a bat house but they also may simply move to another roof where they could very well be fumigated or outright killed. Providing a safe maternity roost is one of the biggest contributions one can make to their conservation. Understanding their plight and importance Janka agreed to become a bat conservationist of the highest order and allow Juliet and the rest of her colony to reside in thir holiday home roof on a permanent basis.

Meanwhile Juliet (still pregnant but looking ready to pop) had regained her strength and was ready to go home. In the interim Janka had completed her holiday and gone home fortunately Romeo was spending a few extra weeks at the holiday home. Romeo was going to get to release Juliet the bat back into the wild. Now remember Romeo wasn’t sure he was all that crazy about bats.So armed with the instructions and the reassurance we had given him Romeo and Juliet were on their own for the release that evening.

A bit later Romeo messaged us “…I was a bit nervous about it but it was amazing … I can’t describe how the feeling feels, it was amazing.” Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of releasing a bat knows that indescribable amazing feeling. Juliet the Free-tailed bat hung out with Romeo for about 20 minutes before flying off, this is quite common as bats like to warm up, do some stretching and get their bearings before flying off. Needless to say Romeo is pretty fond of bats now. A huge thank you to Janka and Romeo for not only rescuing Juliet and getting her to us so swiftly but also providing her and her colony with a safe protected home.

Thank you for your support of our campaign and ensure we could keep the tummy's full of all our patients at ReWild.

Juliet

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Nov 23, 2022
Many little mouths to feed...

By Amy Aucamp-Clark | Campaign Manager

Baby Duiker

Since our last report in July there has been so many hungry little mouths passing through the centre that you would be reading for days if we were to write about each and every one of them, so we have selected just a few of our favourite stories to share with you.

Baby Duiker

A baby duiker was found soon after birth by some construction workers. The place his mother had chosen to give birth is frequented by domestic hunting dogs and the builders felt they couldn’t leave the little duiker there in the bush as the dogs would surely find him, so the brought him to ReWild. The little one was dehydrated and very hungry. After some much needed fluid therapy the baby duiker was soon greedily sucking down milk formula. ReWild typically rehab the smaller wildlife species and don’t really cater for the larger species. So unfortunately the little duiker couldn’t stay for too long and needed to move to a rehabilitation centre more geared for his needs, so the duiker spent a week with ReWild to ensure he was strong enough for the move and then trasported to Umoya Khulula Wildlife Centre where they raise a lot of antelope and have the right facilities for them. We are pleased to say that the baby duiker is thriving and will be able to be released back to the wild when he comes of age.

Angolan free-tailed bat

It was early winter and 'Mike' was only just learning to fly and hunt for himself. He was still dependant on mum for milk but that option was coming to an end. The late season pups often face going independent as winter arrives and insect numbers plummet, the pups born earlier in the season have it far easier. Like it wasn’t tough enough for Mike, he had also picked up a tummy bug and had a very serious case of diarrhoea. Just when it seemed things couldn’t get any more difficult, Mike ended up on the ground. Most bats are unable to get airborne from the ground, they need to take off from height to get flying. Mike was now stuck on the ground. Fortunately for Mike he had grounded on the floor of a hardware store and was found by a caring person. He arrived at ReWild little more than a bag of bones. Emergency fluid therapy got Mike a bit more stable and ready for a drink of milk formula. Antibiotics were needed to resolve Mike’s tummy bug before he could really start feeling better and recovering.

Mike has been spending the winter at ReWild regaining his normal body weight and then some, building up a buffer against possible lean times in the future. He is due to be released soon.

Baby Mouse

Timmy the mouse, was the first baby to arrive at ReWild for this baby season. Timmy was found by a cat and sustained crush injuries resulting in internal bleeding. The cat’s owners rushed Timmy out to the centre but they feared his chances of survival were very slim, but he was a fighter and made it through his first 24 hrs and is getting stronger all the time. Timmy is drinking his milk formula well, toileting normally and sleeping lots allowing his body to heal and grow.

Yellow-Billed Hornbill

A young Yellow-Billed Hornbill was brought in to the centre after being found on the road. He’d obviously been hit by a car. His right eye was very bruised and swollen and he was showing obvious signs of concussion. After couple of days of anti-inflammatories, pain medication and eye ointment he was feeling a lot better. The bruising and inflammation of his eye is coming down and he’s now able to open his eye a little. Fortunately there appears to be no serious damage to the actual eyeball. He definitely gives the hospital food at ReWild a very high rating, as he has a very impressive appetite.

We expect the little fella will make a full recovery after some more time to rest and heal and enjoy the food.

Mike, Angolan Free-Tailed Bat

Baby Mouse

Yellow-Billed Hornbill

Links:

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Jul 27, 2022
Stories from ReWild, the wildlife you helped feed!

By Amy Aucamp-Clark | Campaign Manager

Hadeda Ibis

When it comes to wildlife rehabilitation one of the biggest expenses is food, in some cases it costs more to feed an animal whilst in the clinic than it does to treat it for its injuries. In addition, many of the animals that are admitted to rehabilitation centres aren't injured. They have lost there parents or been taken in as pets and need to be prepared for life back in the wild.

With your donations, you have helped to keep ReWild Rehabilitation Centres patients and 'tenants' tummys full whilst they are getting ready to be returned to the wild. There have been so many individuals through the clinic since we began this campaign, but the story of a Hadeda Ibis that was admitted to the centre about two months ago is one that we would like to share with you as it was such an unusual case.

It was seen sitting in someone’s yard, when he was still sitting quietly in the same place several hours later the homeowner contacted the centre. The poor bird, he was terribly thin and weak. His long beak and head were coated with what seemed to be dirty muddy water that had long since dried hard and matted his feathers. He squinted through swollen puss filled eyes. His chest gurgled with each heaving breath. What had happened to the poor bird? Best guess…he had stuck his head into some dirty water that contained a toxic substance and it had happened a while ago. Then the big questions; can we save him or would trying only prolong his agony, is euthanasia the kinder option? This is a difficult question we often face. To help answer that question we needed to know the toxin.

The homeowner was amazing in her investigation. She found out for us that an outdoor drain had got blocked, the drain cover had been removed and a drain cleaner product had been poured into the drain and the drain was left open for a short period. This happened about a week before the Hadeda Ibis’s rescue. The bird had been seen in the area several days prior his rescue, unable to fly, the people assumed he was a juvenile still learning to fly. We were pretty sure he had stuck his head into that open drain looking for frogs or anything else good to eat.

He had been in trouble for a long time. That meant he was strong, he was fighter, but was it too late to save him? Was there too much damage done? Would his eyes recover from the damage? The centre decided to begin treatment and monitor his response to treatment. Initially he had to be tube fed and spent almost all his time lying down fast asleep. Finally he was in a safe place, he could let his guard down and rest his exhausted body. Soon he started spending more time sitting up and started feeding himself. His eyes healed and regained their sparkle. Full recovery was now just a matter of time!

After a month of treatment, detox and getting his strength back he was ready for some time in the outdoor aviary. A couple of weeks in the aviary and he was ready to go home. At release he wasted no time getting airborne and flying up to perch in a nearby tree. He was back home fit and strong once again to live his life back where he belongs, in the wild!

Hadeda Ibis

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