This brief video of rhino capture is a condensed version showing work that I did in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It starts with a lariat being used on the end of a long bamboo pole to catch a rhino that is about to go into a deep dry luggah (watercourse). It was this tool that had been formerly used to capture rhino without the use of drugs, surely a hazardous business! This rhino had been darted and the rest of the video shows how that process was carried out with several other rhino. All were being moved from areas of Kenya scheduled for settlement. Once the animal had succumbed to the drugs (all new at the time) and had either stopped against some obstacle, or fallen over, it was hobbled, measured, rolled on to a sledge and transported to holding pens for acclimatization before release to its new home. You can read more about the techniques and see more of the stories in either of my books Wrestling With Rhinos or The Trouble With Lions
Safari Ants (Siafu)
This brief clip is an amalgam of my own footage of a small column of safari ants crossing a path in Kibale National park, Uganda and the effect that another column had on a group of Canadian veterinary students. Siafu seem to be able to communicate with one another in some way and do not start to bite until a good number are on the victim’s body. There are stories about them in both of my books Wrestling With Rhinos and The Trouble With Lions. In the former case I relate how a group of them startled me when they got inside my shorts while I was trout fishing on Mount Kenya.
Walking and Wrestling with Moose
This video was shot over two or three seasons in the late 1970s in Saskatchewan and Alberta and shows how moose were captured by darting from helicopters. I developed a technique for walking them out of heavy bush and then pulling them down to process them in clear areas where we could also weigh them. Blood samples were collected, radio collars were put on, and then the animals were woken with specific antidotes. We could then follow them to learn more about their biology.
Lions and Rhinos: Stories from Africa and Canada
Part of an interview with Jackie Kripki for Media Group of Saskatoon. Edited by Tyler Baptist, produced by Thirza Jones. The clip consists of storytelling about The Trouble With Lions, Wrestling With Rhinos, A Glasgow Vet in Africa, and the King of the Dik diks. I describe how a program run by the Saskatchewan Writers Guild got me started with writing creative non-fiction. There is a brief discussion about work in Uganda with Canadian and Ugandan veterinary students and visits to two small primary schools in Queen Elizabeth National Park.