1am wakeup call! “Wake up Moholo crew! Officials are bringing an adult male leopard that got caught around the waist by a cable snare in a fence line”!! As all the staff and students helped getting him off the back of the pick-up, we rushed him into the clinic where we quickly examined his wounds. His front claws were worn down to the root from clawing the ground to free itself from the trap. His front limbs have many puncture wounds from the barbwire. We treat these wounds with an antibiotic spray, leaving him to be a rare “blue spotted Leopard” for a couple of days. His intestines are almost about to fall out. His top right tooth is broken in half with the nerve hanging out. He needs professional help! We contact Dr. Peter Rogers our local vet to make arrangements to stitch up his wounds and to pull out this broken tooth. Once organised off we went and had the privilege of this being witnessed under the curious eye of our students.
He will be kept in an isolated ward for approx. two months and then once fully recovered he will be released into the wild. There is still a long way to go, but we hope he will be able to go back home safe and sound, putting this terrible episode behind him.
A few days later, we got called in again for another animal caught in a snare. This time it was a Brown Hyena, a 100km away from us. Without doubt we radioed Brian who was on another farm 1 hour’s drive away and went to get the Hyena. Luckily the snare did not cut through his front left leg it was only swollen. We have put him in isolation and hopefully we will be able to release him in a weeks’ time.
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