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THE DAVID SHELDRICK
WILDLIFE TRUST
MOBILE VETERINARY UNIT |
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) provides veterinary services
to wildlife in protected and dispersal areas nationally from its
headquarters in Nairobi. The long-term goal of its Veterinary
Department has been to decentralise these services to critical
Parks and regions where the services are most needed. One of these
areas is the Tsavo ecosystem.
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT) sourced a grant from
a European animal welfare NGO called VIER PFOTEN in support of the
KWS Veterinary initiative, primarily to establish a permanent
Veterinary presence in Tsavo East National Park. An experienced
KWS Vet, Dr. David Ndeereh has been seconded for this project.
This fully equipped Mobile Veterinary Unit can now operate closely
with both KWS and the Trust’s Desnaring Teams facilitating a rapid
and effective response to animals in distress due to injury,
sickness or having been orphaned. The service is also extended to
Tsavo West National Park and the surrounding ranches and dispersal
areas, also assisting with cases from Shimba Hills National
Reserve and Amboseli National Park and the Chyulu Hills.
A compassionate
response to animal welfare issues promotes conservation awareness
among local people besides alleviating suffering
Tsavo has an area of over 22,000 sq. Km and an
enormous diversity of animal species. Being arid country it is
surrounded mainly by pastoral communities, but agricultural
activities take place in limited arable areas. However, irrigation
farming is now becoming a thriving economic activity in certain
areas around the Park and this has further escalated human-
wildlife conflict, resulting in injury to wildlife species. Cases
of animals with bullets, arrows and spears lodged in their bodies
are reported on an almost daily basis. One of the fundamental
objectives of this project is to alleviate suffering and distress
in such animals by treating them promptly when they are sighted
before infection sets in and the animals are lost. Previously,
much time would be lost before a Vet could be mobilized from
Nairobi when wounded animals often could not be found, or were
found already dead.
Subsistence hunting and snaring for the bush meat trade is also
rampant in this area. The most commonly used method is laying wire
snares around waterholes and on animal trails. Despite enhanced
security patrols by KWS to deter human incursions into the park
coupled by The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s organised
De-snaring initiatives, many animals are seen carrying wire
snares. The Mobile Veterinary Unit is fully equipped to
alleviate the suffering of such animals without delays that have
previously occurred.
Surveillance of diseases such as rinderpest in wild species is
another aspect of the Mobile Veterinary Unit’s work. In the late
l800’s rinderpest caused extensive mortality in buffaloes, kudus,
and giraffes and remains a threat although many wild species have
developed some immunity. The Mobile Veterinary Unit can monitor
any outbreaks and make appropriate containment recommendations. In
addition, the project will investigate the source of disease
outbreaks and institute appropriate control measures.
Inexperienced mothers giving birth for the first
time sometimes abandon their young soon after birth, leaving their
young abandoned and vulnerable. On occasions a mother is killed or
dies from injury leaving a dependent calf. Another objective of
this project is to rescue such abandoned and orphaned young for
hand-rearing and ultimate rehabilitation back into the respective
wild communities where they belong.
The project will also aim to improve documentation and the
dissemination of animal rescue operational reports in order to
help further conservation awareness with a view to engendering a
better understanding of wild animals and enhance awareness amongst
Kenyans of the value of their priceless wild heritage.
