Valentine’s hiccup for Lioness: Video
Published by Wildcaster 1 year, 9 months ago Tags: adventure, africa, animal kingdom, blogumentary, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, lions, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open Content Alliance, pamushana, peace parks, photos, podcasting, polls, predators, teach, video, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife documentary, youtube, zimbabwe.Lions were today’s focus.
At dawn the collared lioness had joined up with her 3 cubs and the adult male near Makeche. The lioness was calling softly but there was no sign of the rest of the pride. I left them in the shade lying up near a couple of pans, which have seen a lot of buffalo activity recently.
We were back in the afternoon for the drugs course. The lions had moved a couple of kilometres south and but there was no sign of the male. Just the lioness and her cubs.
All went according to plan and the lioness was darted. Her cubs were more interested in the dart than in their mother’s well being. Before she even went down the cubs had pulled the dart out and chewed it up.
With mom down, the cubs scattered when we went to attend to her. No doubt they watched the whole proceedings from the bush close by.
A small incision was made in the lioness stomach and the radio transmitter inserted and she was sewn up again.
By now it had got dark and we all boarded our vehicles waiting for her to wake. Just then the male came swaggering in wondering what all the disturbance was. He saw his mate in the spotlight, but didn’t venture any closer and lay down waiting.
She woke when hearing his approach and groggily staggered towards him falling all over the place. He must have thought she was high on something.
Having greeted and lain down next to him, we left them in peace.
Share Wildcast with the world: 
Kim,
That transmitter that they put in the Lioness stomach looked very big in the video. Why put a transmitter in a stomach? Didn’t she also have a transmitter collar on. Though I don’t understand why I would like to know Thanks
Patrick
Such interesting stuff Kim! Keep up the wonderful post with the students!
Good shot by the drug darter!
Kim, I found the last 2 video very interesting from a medical standpoint. What was the purpose of the tests and sample collected from the elephant? will you let us know what is found out? What part did you play in all of this or were you just on the camera?
Ive gotta know, why the transmitter in the stomach cavity? It seems like a risk that it would block her system. I realize it wouldnt be done if it could harm her, but it seems there are different alternatives? Something else, working with animals that go through surgeries I know from experience that a good percentage of them dont leave the incision site alone. Will she be monitored until the site is healed so she doesnt open the incision up? Also if the transmitter was put in why did the collar remain on her? will the vet team continue to look for Snorkle to see what can be done for him?
Cheers
Patrick. The transmitter is only about 3 inches long and 3/4 inch in diameter. This is far less obtrusive to the animal compared to the collar which you can imagine is a continuous hindrance. Once the implant is in the stomach cavity the animal has no sense of it being there. But the collar is no getting away from.
Paige. Whenever any wild animal is immobilized the vets will always take blood samples to test for all sorts of things. None of these are really a problem. But for instance there was an anthrax outbreak on Maliangwe a few years ago. the first in Zimbabwe. And by going back and checking blood samples taken from animals over the last few years they are able to see whether those animals had built up an immunity to anthrax and had antibodies against it. This would mean that there could have been anthrax in the area many many years ago.
I just run around with my camera. Just so interesting to see these animals up close. Also give me a better understanding of the animal i’m filiming. I used in the past, before being a filmmaker, be quite involved in game capture.
Transmitter lies loose with the intestines in the stomach cavity. not in the instestines themselves. Absolutely no risk of any blockage. Very very safe and been done repeatedly.
We are monitoring her for the next 2 weeks until the injury is completely healed.
if we do find Snorkel while the vets are here they will check to see what is causing his problem. but he is a lot better compared to the other day when i saw him.
Thanks Kim for the feedback.