A story slam event at Lydia’s Pub in Saskatoon. The story, as related to me by Dr. Lyndsay Phillips, about the intelligence of orangutans.
Summertime Moose Calf Research
Super 8 videos shot in in the late 1970s and digitized, with introduction. They tell the story of work done in Saskatchewan during studies to determine the effect of bears on calf survival.
Sex and Antlers in Moose
1960s Rhino Capture
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.
Moose Bulldogging or Moose Research
This six minute video was made from Super8 film taken in the Saskatchewan River Delta in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The film was digitized and then edited in QuickTime for the Mac before being completed in iMovie. It shows a new technique that I developed for walking drugged moose out of heavy bush so that they could be weighed. It also showcases my new book Of Moose and Men: A Glasgow Vet in Canada which should be out and available in late 2011.
