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- Capture and
Relocation
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- Each year the
enterprise captures and relocates within Southern Africa in excess of
six thousand animals. The majority of these are relocated using sail
bomas, although where the species or habitat type dictates we will
utilize net bomas and chemical immobilization techniques. Going as far
as to air-lift animals out of
inaccessible terrain, this has been carried out without incident with
species as large as giraffe and rhino.
Whatever operation we undertake we ensure that the levels of
training, equipment, technical expertise and company infrastructure
will enable us to complete the job; fulfilling the best interests of
the clients and the animals. Annually we succeed in having notably
lower mortalities than the national average for the industry.
We are renowned as the leading independent organization for the
immobilization and relocation of black and white rhino, pioneering
release straight back into the veldt rather than the traditional
holding boma, which can often lead to complications. We have relocated
a few hundred rhino including the export of individuals.
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- Transportation
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- Thaba Manzi offers the services to hire its transport vehicle for
the different species. Especially after auctions game ranches often
don't have their own transport vehicles.
All Thaba Manzi's transport vehicles conform to the SABS
requirements.
If you need a transport vehicle, please contact
Hans Kooy
on +27 (0) 82
891 5889.
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- Holding and
Quarantine facilities
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The holding facilities at Thaba Manzi are available for
quarantine and auctions.
The first phase of the holding pens was completed in 2006. These
pens were mainly built for rhino but has been home already to many
species such as eland, blue wildebeest, hippo and zebra. Our state
veterinarian even asked if these bomas were for elephant. He recognized
the fact that no animal will be able to break these bomas as they are
built with railway tracks (not wooden sleepers)!
The other pens being built at the moment will mainly be for antelope
species. These pens are near completion.
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- Import and Export
We
have successfully been involved in both the export and import of various game
species. Species have been imported from other Southern African countries as
well as Togo. Animals are kept in quarantine facilities until not only the legal
obligations have been fulfilled but also until we are satisfied that the animals
as individuals are ready to be relocated into a new environment. Through our
extensive network of clients we are able to source suitable animals that are
held in quarantine until we are satisfied that they have adapted suitably for
the purpose of export. To date we have successfully exported consignments of
animals to Spain, Portugal, Germany, France,
Malaysia, Namibia, Botswana, Saudi Arabia, Zambia and
Zimbabwe.
Each
consignment of animals is constantly monitored by a veterinarian who will then
travel through to the final destination along with a member of our staff to
ensure the welfare of the animals is not compromised in any way. A valuable
service that gives greater peace of mind to clients.
Veterinary services
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Dr Jana
Pretorius is a specialist wildlife veterinarian who keeps an eye on the welfare of the
animals and has a magnitude of other responsibilities. She does all
the darting and is available to work for any of the clients in need of
veterinary services.
Immobilization of animals can be for movement or
treatment of the animals or other procedures such as blood sampling,
microchipping, pregnancy tests etc.
She is at the moment actively involved at
Onderstepoort, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria,
and has qualified as a wildlife specialist veterinarian by obtaining
her Master's degree in wildlife medicine (MMedVet (Wildlife)).
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2008
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A
rhino bull presented with lameness and a swollen hock joint. We treated it
conservatively at first but when there was no improvement we decided to call in
the help of an Equine Specialist Physician, Dr Montague Saulez. Together with Dr
Saulez we did two joint flushes in the holding pens but he still needed some
more treatment. He was then taken to Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital
(The Veterinary Faculty, University of Pretoria). The team of specialists under
Dr Saulez did an arthroscopy and flushed his joint extensively. After being
under general anaesthetic for almost 4 hours, the rhino was woken up and taken
back to the holding pens for recovery. He made an uneventful recovery and was
eventually taken to his new home.
A
buffalo cow showed signs of discomfort and weight loss. After several blood and
other laboratory tests, we enlisted the help of Dr Lynelle Sweers (Specialist
Veterinary Diagnostic Imaging Services) to scan the cow with an ultrasound
scanner. A dead foetus was found in her abdomen and the decision was made to
operate and remove the foetus. The calf was very big (+/- 40kg) and tore through
the uterus during calving. This caused severe adhesions between the rectum and
rest of the intestines which made a rectal examination impossible. The cow has
since recovered well and will be released as soon as she has built up her body
reserves again.
Dr
Dietmar Holm from Onderstepoort, Veterinary Faculty, University of Pretoria, and
his team of final year students performed the operation while Dr Pretorius
managed the anesthesia of this 2 hour operation.
A
rhino cow was translocated to a big Kalahari property and we implanted a
radio-transponder into her horn for the new owners to be able to track her.
Research
Thaba Manzi
is also actively involved with research stemming from different
projects from the University of Pretoria. One such project was to
validate a method to measure stress in rhinos in captivity without
immobilizing them. Thaba Manzi had some rhinos in their holding pens
and helped Luisa to obtain the necessary samples. The rhinos were
injected with drop-out darts with a drug that increased the release
of the stress hormone, cortisol. The levels were then measured in
the faeces of the animals. (2005)
From 2005, the team of Thaba Manzi helped Dr Jana
Pretorius to obtain blood samples from black wildebeest caught
during the capture operations for a very important project on
malignant catarrhal fever (MCF), also known as "snotsiekte".
The past year has seen a tremendous increase in MCF cases and has
caused a number of cattle farmers to sue the neighboring game
farmers. This disease, which is fatal in 99% of cases, has a
huge economic impact on cattle farmers and many of these disputes
end in court.
The research project is structured in two phases.
First the project will determine the carrier status in black
wildebeest. Secondly, the project will measure the shedding of the
virus by the calves and hopefully shed more light on the
transmission of the disease. This in turn could help improve our
current knowledge on how to help prevent the disease. A vaccine at
this point is not feasible as none of the tested vaccines have
worked in the past. The animals involved with the second part of the
project is housed in the holding pens at Thaba Manzi.
Thaba Manzi has also provided other samples to
different projects and will continue to be actively involved with
research.
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