Kyle's Uganda Trip 2013: UWEC Day 8

Another Waterbuck health check

Aggressive indeed!

Today, we had to dart yet another waterbuck. This time we went to a different exhibit than the day before. And our target this time was an adult male (as can be seen by his horns). The one major challenge we had trying to work on him in this exhibit was dealing with the aggressive male ostrich that also resided in that exhibit. Any time we stopped the truck he would come really close to us. Sometimes he would walk back and forth, sometimes he would start doing a mating display and in one instance he came right up to the trick and began kicking it and hissing at us. Hameed had to use the buttstock of the rifle against his neck to keep him at bay. We tried to guide the ostrich into the holding area but every time he got near it, he would quickly dodge the keepers and move to another area. Very frustrating. So the only way we would have been able to get near our waterbuck, is when two keepers got out of the truck and kept him distracted in an other area of the exhibit.

Jenny being very helpful in holding him up in that
position for us

We had much better success this time with the dart and all of the drug went into the animal. So he went down pretty quickly. We were able to get adequate blood and fecal samples from him, and I gave him all the required shots he needed (antibiotics, multivitamins, anti-parasitic). I finally gave him the reversal agent to wake him back up. Barbara attempted to get him to stand to help him orient himself, but initially he kept falling down. After some time, she just moved towards him and he was conscious enough to get up and run away.

Get together in the evening:

The UWEC Animal Keeper gang!

As a celebration for Mr. Takahashi's birthday, all of the animal keepers wanted to take him out for dinner and drinks. So we all headed to a nice outside bar in Entebbe. It was a lot of fun. We all had a fair amount to drink, the birthday man especially. Then a nice treat for food was fresh roasted chicken and chips on the street right out from the bar. Really good! As we were still relatively close to UWEC, we walked back as a small group. It was good company for walking at night.