Caracals October Update

Cleo has been very mischievous lately and has suffered as a result of her curious cat nature! Whilst out on a walk with Abraham and the volunteers one day, she took an interest in one of the girls' boots, in particular, the fluffy ball hanging off the Ugg boot!

With one swift tug, the ball was off the boot and in Cleo's mouth. A few seconds later and she had swallowed the whole thing which got caught in her oesophagus, causing her to choke and wheeze.

She was still able to breathe and luckily Rudie was on the farm that day so we quickly brought her into the veterinary clinic for him to examine her. He put her to sleep with a muscle relaxer so that he could look down her throat to find the stuck fluffy ball. With extreme precision and care, he applied a pair of tweezers and a pipe to gently pull the ball of material out. The whole procedure took about 30 minutes and before long she was brought around again. Since then, we've been careful to ensure the volunteers wear sensible footwear at all times!

We hope you'll all be pleased to hear that Godiva has now made a full recovery and re-joined the other caracals, fit and healthy! The vets prescribed that Godvia should receive cage rest for 2 whole months while her broken leg healed, so there would be no risk of damaging it again through playing or jumping. So poor Godiva had to be separated from Cleo, Medusa and Yoda and spent time in a small enclosure down on the farm by the volunteer area. She received lots of attention from the volunteers however, who would spend their lunchtimes sitting with her for company. She also received lots of treats such as guinea fowl for dinners!

Last month we sent her into the vets for more x-rays to see how her leg has healed and fortunately she has fully recovered and no further operation is necessary. Before we moved her back into her normal enclosure, we attached a tracking collar so that she could resume going on daily walks with the volunteers - and use her leg properly!

 

We still have plans to release Yoda, after he demonstrated his wild instincts during a "play" fight with Godiva. As he has been habituated for so long though, it's going to take time to find a suitable release site as it's paramount we choose the right place for him to easily adapt into a wild environment. We'll keep you posted!  

Yoda

Yoda

Medusa is still majestic to watch as she crosses the Namibian veldt on her daily walks and she loves to climb trees too. Her climbing skills are more than impressive to watch!

Our two little baby caracals, Rocky and Ivy, continue to live in their garden camp at the back of one of the staff houses. We try to keep human contact to a minimum as we hope that in a year or so, they'll be big enough to be re-released back into the wild, and so we do not want them to get too used to or dependent on humans. 

  

We have built a small house for them made out of hay to give them shelter from the heat during the day and the cold nights. One of our Wildlife Coordinators feeds each of them a healthy portion of  red meat every other day, which they gobble up. Subsequently they are growing at a very fast rate and their tummies almost touch the ground as they run across their camp! This is a good sign that these baby caracals are adapting well to their new temporary home and will grow into big, strong caracals.