My good friend Ollie, manager of Safari Style Hotel, takes in antelopes, bush bucks, dik-diks and other wildlife into her care in the hotel compound. The wildlife officers often bring animals to Ollie because she knows how to take care of them. One of her staff also works in the Ministry of Wildlife, so he alerts her to the different wildlife that come in. On the weekend, he happened to casually show her a photograph of two leopard cubs that they had recently acquired, so Ollie went straight to the Ministry compound (which is right next door to us) to find out.
The story from the Ministry of Wildlife was that in the area where Southern National Park is located (but not operational), around a two hour drive west of Rumbek, some SPLA soldiers patrolling the area came across a leopard, who ran away when she saw them approaching. Afterwards, they heard the cries of the cubs in the grass, and went to investigate. They took them from their natural habitat (the worst thing you could do - the mother hadn't abandoned them!) and took them to a cattle camp, where they apparently survived for three weeks on cow's milk before being brought to the Ministry compound where they'd been for a week. Given their size, we didn't believe this story; in our eyes they only look like they were 3 weeks old. We also didn't believe that the soldiers had let the leopard run away; we think they killed her and then took the babies to be sold.
Leopards are extremely rare in South Sudan due to the war (hunted for food, driven away by fighting), hunting for their fur and their cubs (to sell as pets). They are apparently a unique sub-species that has evolved differently from leopard populations in other parts of Africa.
When Ollie saw the state they were in and the terrible conditions in which the wildlife officers were keeping them, she came to get me. The poor little critters were suffering from dehydration, malnutrition and diahorrea. The wildlife officers were feeding them every six hours - using unsterilised bowls, milk power (which lacked the vitamins & minerals that humans need, let alone big cats!) mixed with cold water - through a very dirty-looking rubber glove. The idea was right, but the execution was poor. Given that these cubs are only about 3 weeks old, they need the right food administered in a hygienic way, as they are very susceptible to disease.
We were extremely worried they wouldn't survive the night, particularly the female who was extremely skinny due to dehydration and malnourishment, and very unsteady on her feet. The two of them certainly wouldn't have survived if we'd left them in the care of the wildlife officers who said 'oh, they're just cats' and were not prepared - nor able - to administer the regular care required to keep these rare animals alive - feeding every 2 hours with the right mixture of leopard-specific milk formula.
So we tried to convince them that we should take them with us and administer the proper care for them, to ensure they'd survive. While they weren't happy with this, they grudgingly admitted that they didn't have any money to buy the right food nor were they prepared to sacrifice the time and effort required to do so. When they said 'we don't work on Sundays, so we'll sort it out tomorrow', we got even more frustrated. In the end we promised that we'd take care of them so that they would survive the night, and to come back on Monday with the cubs. (ha! not likely)
Grrrrr ... these people are responsible for the country's wildlife, but they don't even know what wildlife is (except cows), nor how to take care of it! They didn't even understand what endangered or threatened means - nor that it is extremely important that such animals are given the highest priority for protection and care. The problem is that the Ministry has no capacity, medicine nor money to take care of any wildlife. They don't even know what half the wildlife are that they come across. In their compound are two small cages in which they keep a handful of baboons and a small red monkey, whom they let out regularly to roam their compound (and ours!) to forage for food. If they can't feed some baboons, how will they take care of two leopard cubs?! Their wildlife officers are not properly trained - nor have the knowledge - to know what to do. They are also missing another vital attribute - giving a shit.
So we took them away yesterday and started taking care of them at Safari Style. A bit of internet research found us a recipe for some special milk formula for leopards (egg yolk, milk powder, glucose and gelatin), which we syringed down their throats every 2-3 hours, as well as ORS to try and rehydrate them. We spent all afternoon doing this with these beautiful creatures. What a privilege. We continued through the night lat three-hourly intervals - 11pm, 2am, 5am and 8am.
action shot!
I'm now suffering from lack of sleep, am covered in scratches and bite marks, and I think the little critters slightly dislike me for such 'mistreatment' - but it was worth it. This morning they were lively bundles of fur! They are so gorgeous. I am in love!
Ollie and her new charge
Ollie ordered some probiotics from Nairobi, which will arrive on a plane today. We are hoping the vets in Kenya will also send de-worming tablets; the poor little guys aren't getting as many nutrients as they should because the worms are consuming them all! We may have to resort to human de-worming tabs. There is a vet in Rumbek who works for VSF (Veterinaires Sans Frontiers), and we got him to take a look at them yesterday. So far so good; we are doing the right thing for now. VSF deals mostly with bovine health, and doesn't have specialised medicines for domestic animals like dogs, let alone wild ones like leopards!
At least our two charges are looking much healthier than they were. There is such a change in them from when we first found them at the Ministry. They have energy, they want to eat, they're exploring, playing and generally cruising around looking like fat, happy leopard cubs!
The next stage in the saga was the meeting with the Ministry that Ollie had this morning. The head of Wildlife Officers basically told her to bring the leopards back to them so that they can take care of them. But they said she should pay for all the medicine and food for them. Fuckers. They can't have their cake. If they're not prepared to pay for the care required, why should they be allowed to keep them, especially when they can't even demonstrate that they will do it properly?
Eventually, when they're big, the Ministry wants to keep the leopards in their compound in an existing house/cage, and charge people to come and see them. How bloody ignorant, selfish and money-hungry can you get. Keeping a male and female leopard together in a cage is madness - they'll kill each other, or escape from the compound and kill someone's cows, which will lead to them being killed. They might even kill a person. These are wild animals that shouldn't be locked up! They need acres of land for hunting. It just shows how little knowledge and care there is for wildlife here. Cows are the priority. No suprises really though - people here find it difficult enough to look after themselves, let alone wildlife - and wildlife provides a source of income if they kill them for their fur or their young to sell as pets.
So, what next? We're certainly not interested in keeping these beautiful creatures in a cage ourselves. Once they are healthy enough, we want to return them to the wild. Doing so here would almost be a death wish. We just can't guarantee their survival even if we took them out to Southern National Park, where they were found. The park is just allocated land; there is no infrastructure there, with no-one patroling any sort of boundary nor enforcing hunting restrictions. We're concerned that if we release them there, they'll either be hunted or sold for money. People just have no perception of wildlife conservation. The same thing could happen all over again.
So the plan is to try and get a CITES permit to get the leopards out of the country. We are hoping an organisation called Wildlife Conservacy Services (WCS) can help us to get these little guys out of here and safely into a national park or wildlife conservation area somewhere like Kenya or South Africa, where they can be properly protected. WCS is working with the South Sudan Government to set up a network of National Parks across the country, build ranger stations, establish park boundaries and train staff to patrol them. They are also tasked with protecting wildlife in the country. Currently though, none of this exists - WCS are only just building the ranger stations.
Hopefully, in future - which is looking like somewhere between 20 - 50 years - wild animals like our little feline friends can be reintroduced into the wild in South Sudan, once the park system is properly functional. The country is perfect for it - miles and miles of mostly uninhabited land - but it will be a long, uphill battle to achieve anything like a functional parks system.
So, we remain cautiously optimistic about the survival of these two little leopard cubs. Things are definitely looking up - compared to when we first found them. But we'll just have to wait and see. All we know is that we're going to do our darnedest to stop them from getting back into incompetent Ministry of Wildlife hands.
This experience erases all of the sh!te i've experienced working here in South Sudan. It's a rare thing to even see a leopard in the wild, let alone leopard cubs, and to have the opportunity to give them a chance to survive makes me feel like I have some sort of super power. I'm one of the luckiest people alive.
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