Wildcast

It’s always a treat to see a herd of eland as these animals, although not actually rare, are only found in a few areas in Africa.
And unfortunately man is, just boxing in those big herds that require so much space, all the time.
These antelope have never really come to accept man wherever they occur and tend to be nervous trotting away just as one stops to get a better look at them.

They also have incredible stamina and can trot and trot endlessly. A pack of hyaenas in the Kalahari was recorded to have chased one 23kms before bringing it down. Quite a feat for both animals.
My only experience with eland landed me in much the same state I’m in right now.
I was in Swaziland and we had to capture this eland bull to translocate him to another reserve. We darted the animal and then had to stay with it until the drug took effect. As expected, as soon as the dart him he took off at a trot. We let him get quite some distance ahead so as not to disturb him too much before following after him in the land rover.

I was on the back standing up but hanging on as we raced along a track to cut him off. The track ahead forked, and as the eland was off to the right I was prepared to lean into the corner to take the right fork. Well the driver had other ideas and went left. At 60km/hour I didn’t have any purchase leaning the wrong way and was flung from the land rover to go tumbling in the dirt. No problem, I was up, dusted myself and back on the vehicle again. We caught up to the eland, which had now come to a standstill but hadn’t gone down. It was now my job to grapple with him, get a rope around and tie him to the vehicle until the crate arrived.

All went according to plan and the eland was loaded and successfully translocated.
I successfully translocated myself home without much ado.
But the next morning I woke up feeling as if I’d been hit by a bus. I couldn’t move a muscle and had to be helped out of bed. My whole body was stiff and sore. Eventually by the end of the day I was walking again and the following day back on the job again.
I wish my shoulder would heal that quickly. Although I must say it’s doing pretty well.
I suppose they call it old age.