We had a lot of excitement today at the Sanctuary, which started with a call to say that a baboon being kept as a pet by a villager was in urgent need of rescue because the villagers were threatening to kill it. When the team arrived they found a shy, gentle juvenile yellow baboon tied to a woman’s bicycle. It is illegal for anyone to keep a wild animal as a pet in Malawi, and this includes baboons. Despite this, however, the illegal ‘owner’ was reluctant to give it up, explaining that about a year ago a troop of baboons were being chased away from the village and one female had two babies and had only been able to carry one. She had therefore taken this baby out of pity and hand raised it until now. In fact it is so rare for a baboon to have twins I can’t even find any statistics on it, so this story is unlikely to be true. It is much more likely that the mother was killed for bush meat and this baby sold on to the illegal pet trade, which is where she was purchased by her current ‘owner’ . Despite the illegality of the situation, the ‘owner’ was still reluctant to give the baboon up. Nothing, but nothing happens quickly in Africa, and it was some time before the team were able to secure the loudly wailing baboon in the truck and begin the drive back towards the Sanctuary.
The truck was about half way back when they received a call from staff of the Egyptian Ambassador to say that a leopard was in the ambassador’s kitchen. The team knew this was highly unlikely but changed course immediately and went to find out what was happening. They arrived at the scene to find a serval cat crouching in terror at the back of a storm drain situated to the side of the Egyptian ambassador’s residence. It had open bleeding wounds which had probably been inflicted by a pack of dogs that were still visible, apparently hoping for an opportunity to finish the cat off. There was also a large number of highly excited villagers eager to get a look at the animal, and cameramen from newspapers similarly misinformed and keen to take photographs. The cameramen were closely accompanied by a widely beaming Egyptian Ambassador in a very fine suit. He was clearly delighted by the situation and was no doubt eager to get himself a few free positive column inches in the local newspapers. The serval meanwhile was clearly in pain and in a state of abject terror. Access to the animal was very difficult, not least because the Ambassador seemed to feel a sense of proprietorship, his staff having called the rescue team, and he wanted to be photographed with it. Petting it, perhaps?
Not surprisingly, the team found it very difficult to work in these crowded and noisy conditions. They had to ask everyone to withdraw so they could dart the serval and remove him to the truck. This request was met with indignation by the entire crowd, and most particularly by the Egyptian Ambassador. Legally, however, the rescue team had the right to remove the animal for its own safety. It was some time before the crowd thinned, and the team succeeded in clearing the entrance to the storm pipe. The serval was then darted and transported back to the Sanctuary accompanied by vets who closely monitored his condition.
The baboon and serval arrived about 9pm with an exhausted team who had spent most of the day dealing with these two emergencies. The baboon was in good condition once the rope had been removed from her waist, with no sign of damage to her skin. She was taken into quarantine for the night. The serval was rushed to the clinic and a 2 hour examination was carried out.
The clean up, examination and work on the serval was undertaken by a team of qualified vets, and 4 trainee vets. A number of volunteers - including your’s truly - were allowed to stand at the back of the room to observe. The room was fairly crowded but almost silent while the work was being carried out, the low toned voices of the veterinary staff sharing information with each other about the wounds they were working on, and frequent updates on the animals temperature, heartbeat and level of sedation being the only sounds heard.
The examination revealed three major tears in the serval’s skin, and a multitude of tooth marks and scratches over his lower back and back legs. All of the wounds were cleaned, and two stitched. The third wound had penetrated much further and it was feared his bowel had been perforated. The serval had been sedated over 2 hours by then, however, and needed to be revived and left to rest. She was carried through to an indoor quarantine enclosure, made comfortable on blankets and towels, and an injection given to reverse the anesthetic. While he was left to recover, we began the task of unloading the trucks, checking further on the baboon and cleaning up the clinic before going to bed, by which time the monitoring vet told us that he had come around, and had now settled down to sleep. A rota was drawn up so that all the animal care staff would take a 2 hour slot to monitor his condition overnight.
A further operation will take place tomorrow when the local animal hospital has opened and an operating theater can be reserved.
We know nothing about the background of the serval – where he came from, how he ended up in the storm drain, how long he had been there etc. He may have been kept as a pet illegally and released recently when the owner realized they could no longer handle him safely. This would explain how he came to be in the midst of a large community of people. Or he could be a wild animal that has had the misfortune to be injured by dogs while foraging in the area. We have excellent facilities here to care for him though, and it will be very exciting to see how he responds to medical treatment over the next few days.
We went to sleep to the melancholy cries of the yellow baboon. She does not know how to act like a baboon and so cannot be placed in with other animals who might be able to offer her comfort. They would certainly attack her. We also need to observe a period of 6 weeks quarantine as if she is carrying any diseases it can take this long for symptoms to show. Her lonely cries for her human owner were truly heartbreaking. As we closed the mosquito nets against the night, we all laying listening to her cries, and hoped tomorrow would bring her and our serval the start of a much happier future.
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