SYMCO 2009--Day 6 (7/2) "Rhino Immobilisation"

"Rhino Immobilisation"!!!
(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

There were at least two vets involved in this immobilisation procedure today. One was on the helicopter, the other was in jeeps with the ground groups. The one in the helicopter fired the anesthetic shot to the rhino in the air and told the ground groups the exact position by radio. We were all in the jeeps and followed the ground groupse. When we were trying to get closer to the position, the helicopter keeped following the animal so we won't lose it.
(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

The rhino will pace up befor falling down, and they will cover a cloth on its eyes to avoid light stimulation. After lying down, they did some samplings like blood and parasites(?). They also applyed some antibiotics on the skin wounds.
We did the immobilisation preocedure on 4 white rhinos for different reasons. Two of them will be enclosed to the pens (usually they call those pens boma)builded in the national park, waiting for auctions. In South Afica a person can own wildlifes in his/her private farm and for their own uses like game drivings, foods, sellings, or even hunting targets for customers with a lot of money. They told us a lot of lion hunting customers are from USA. I'm not surprise for this.

(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)


The first rhino got a big hole on its prepuce(maybe from another male's horn).There are also a lot of ticks on that...
(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

The transfer cages are special rhombus shapes.
(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

SYMCO 2009--Day 6 (7/2) "Encounter with lions"

(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

Today is the rhino day!!But on the way to the rhino habitation, we encountered 4 male lion in a very very short distance. They passed through our jeeps in such a close distance and made everyone wooden. That was really a miracle!!! They were so beautiful, elegant and magnificent!
(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

I will always remember a male one who passed our jeep and gave me a strong glance. It seemed like he was saying " Another nobody....Pshaw..." XDDD~~ I can naver forget that stare.
In the night game driving, we saw two female lions lying on the roadside as well. Almost everytime as the lions appeared they will cause severe traffic jam, if they stay there long enough~~XDD
(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

SYMCO 2009--Day 3 (6/29) "Culture evening"

What a night!!Tonight is "Culture evening", and it means that we all bring the special food and drink from our own country. The symco 2009 delegates come from 22 different countries~~ Really a colorful night!
(Photo: by Lisa Eriksson from Sweden)

I brought 2 packs of "IRON EGGS", 2 packs of "BEEF JERKEY"(one spicy and the other original), 1 pack of flower tea. The happiest thing is, Brett, a guy from USA, told me that the beef jerkey was the best thing he had tonight!!^0^ Cool!! Taiwanese special Beef Jerkey was praised in South Afica~~ The other one, Iron eggs, were too weird to be loved.(I think..XD)But there were also a guy from Australia(actually he was from Malaysia but studies in Australia), Shu Hong, who really loved those black, weird, solid small eggs and had up to three!!XD
Well, I also brought our national flags as decoration. I had asked in advance whether there are anyone from mainland China or not to avoid embarrassing, but fortunately there are not.
(Photo: by SYMCO 2009 authorities)

SYMCO 2009--Day 3 (6/29) "Pathology demonstration"

After the cheetah center, we had a pathology demonstration session in school. They show us how to do the autopy on a small warthog. I was surprice to see their stairway-like classroom special for postmortem, Karin told me that they also have somthing familiar in Sweden. I think it's really a good idea to build the autopsy classroom like that, so we student don't need to climb on the table or stand on the chair to see something.
(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

Well, anyway, the professor is a white old man. He kept asking us questions and encouraged everyone to answer. A very good man! His assistance is the black man wearing blue shirt.
(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

SYMCO 2009--Day 3 (6/29) "De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Centre"

(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

Finally, THE CHEETAH!!!Today we got up very early and went directly to "De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Centre". That was almost the place that I expected most!CHEETAH!!We saw some juvenile cheetah when we arrived, this was the first time for me to see cheetah in such short distance! These cheetch are all artificial reproducted, so they quite get used to human beings. We saw the feeding as well, but the schedule was a little bit hurry. I need more time!!!!><
After seeing the juvenile cheetah for a while, Dr. Peter Caldwell gave us a speech on the captive management of predators. I heard later that he had a lot of experience in handling big cats. We watched a video concerning about a captive process, and in the end of the talk he also show the anesthetic gun to us.
(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

After the speech we split into two groups. I was in the first group, so we did the cheetah immobilization and the endoscope examination first. The cheetah had a diarrhoea, and we can see the intertwined fur on the caudal hind leg, just beneath the anus.
(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

With the endoscope, we saw some ulcerations at the wall of digestive tract(stomach). We can feel the pulse and the heart beats in turn, or pull the gum a little bit to see if there was a reflex. It's really very interesting, but also very crowded. Because you see, there were almost 40 people squeeze in a garage(because the electrical power was more stable here~) with the cheetch and machines.
I didn't hear the cheetch's heart beat since when it was my turn, the cheetah was beginning to waking up, so we had to put it back to its' enclosure.
(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

In the afternoon, we did the tour guide in the center and saw some other animals like wild dogs(their barkings are really really very special, just the same as those on TV~XDD), brown hyaena(just one), and 2 adult cheetah. They are really very beautiful!! But there were something a little bit weird: They used the meat(food)to attract the animals and make them follow our jeeps~~ I'm not very sure if this is a proper way to treat these animals.

They told us these animals still have a long way to be released, since there are still a lot of problem for them to adapt the life in the wild. They are trying to breed the wild dogs and other animals as well at present.
(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)

Another interesting thing is we saw another kind of cheetah called "The King cheetah". They are really special creature with strip pattern. What are the other differences?? Please read the next article~~^^

(Photo by JOY, ID:hiirovanilla; at SYMCO 2006, http://hiirovanilla.pixnet.net/album/photo/81995329#pictop)

PS. I spent "a lot" of money in this center, including a colorful books about this center itself and the lady who founded it.(Only the book itself cost me R250~~><'')

(Photo by JOY, ID:hiirovanilla; at SYMCO 2006, http://hiirovanilla.pixnet.net/album/photo/81995217#pictop)

SYMCO 2009--Day 2 (6/28)

(6/28)Today filled up with lectures!! The talks were delivered by the specialists in South Afica.(or the world??) The first talk was concerning about The Role of a Wildlife Vet, and gave us a whole picture of what is a wildlife vet's life looked like. The talk 2,3 and 4, presentd by Dr. Leon J. Venter, were about the physiology and pharmacology of immobilisation. I have to say that although I've just finished the one year Pharmacology lecture in the last samester, I still have soooo much to learn...
(photo: from symco 2009 authorities)

(photo: from symco 2009 authorities)

Talk 5 was about aquatic conservation medicine. There were massive doom on crocodiles in SA in the latest years, even in the natinal parks. The bigger the crocodile is, the easier for it to be affected. In autopsy, the fat tissue became too solid and hard for them to wave their tails and swim , that's the reason why the crocodile had to stay on land and dry in the sun. They have some inferences to the cause, but the exact reason is still unknow. Maybe I should search their published research papers and to know some details.
After lunch(we had lunch at about 3 o'clock today)there were a short vedio about the Lesotho Outreach. I brought 3 packs of color pencils amd pens for them. Hope those chrildren like them~~At least those are my favorite in my childhood~~XD
At dinner Jane tald us the magical story about how she met her fiance, it's really a very cool story.(Jane herself is a cool person as well, especially with her characteristic HAHA laughing~XDD
(photo: from symco 2009 authorities)

SYMCO 2009--Day 1st (6/27)

(6/27)Today is the official arrival day, although i've heard that some guys were already been here for some days. I arrived in South Africa at the early morning(about 7 o'clock) of 6/27 amd soon got to the post office in the airport. The first one I saw was Kaori Ota, the very nice girl from Japan.^0^'' Actually we've already met on facebook for some times and have discussed how to choose the plug types or stuff like that on line. (Although in the end both of our plugs were useless in SA. HAHAHA~~The plug there are indeed 3 round holes, but...bigger than we thought.)
The first meal in SA was pizza, the lunch. We sit and had our lunch in circles and chat. The afternoon itinerary was tour guide of the Onderstepoort Faculty of Vet Science.(I still can't pronounce that word now even though the symposium had already closed for months.)
The guide of our small meercat groups was a committee member called Rikus. We visited their anatomy room, school hospital and farm. I was very surprice to see their very huge anatomy room. It's about 8~10 times bigger than ours!!Am I exaggerating??? Uhh...Maybe memories beautify the facts, or their tall ceiling made the room looked much higher? But~ Anyway, it's much much bigger than NTU's.

And the studant there are so lucky to have the samples like lion, rhino, cheetah, elephant,etc. They told me the students can't really "cut" those reaserch purpose sample, but at least they have chances to closely observe. Be frankly, during the tour guide I was struugling for Rikus's heavy Afican accent~~><''I'm not pretty sure if that is his problem or mine, (maybe mine are for most part.XD)but anyway those 2

At night there was Opening Banquet, but actually I had a terrible time different(6 hours) and hardly had any sleep on the plane. So~~very very tired in the end...almost fell into sleep.(But I still danced a little bit~^^'')We stayed in their student apartment tonight, there are all single room. I was very lucky to have a wonderful neighbor, Karin, lived in the next door. It seems that we are the only two girls lived in the first floor.(All other girls stayed in the upper floor.)We are really good neighbor and it was so lucky for me to know her in the first day.: )

(Photo: from SYMCO 2009 authorities)