By Carl Drotsky
More than twenty years ago, a refuge for animals was started in the Limpopo province called the Moholoholo Rehabilitation Centre. Brian Jones had been taking care of animals for most of his life but saw that the ever-growing number of wounded and neglected animals in the wild demanded a team of people dedicated to the cause as well. In 1991, Brian assembled a group to run the wildlife safe house which has since cared for countless animals at risk. Besides caring for many different animal and bird species, Moholoholo has done a great deal of research to protect endangered species. Some of the most recent animals brought to the centre include a civet and a sooty tern.
Incase you're not familiar with a sooty tern, it's simply a black and white seabird seen occasionally on the island beaches of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific. This type of bird is actually capable of staying out at sea for years at a time. The only real reasons a tern needs to come onto land is for breeding or to escape a violent storm as was the case with the one who arrived at the centre utterly fatigued in January of this year. It's an unusual occurrence to spot a sooty tern anywhere but the sea or the coast, so Moholoholo employees took great pleasure in caring for this special bird.
Completely dependent, the tern had to receive water through a tube and force fed six times a day by the rehab centre's staff. Because this type of bird is used to sea fish, a man from Phalaborwa was gracious enough to provide all the sea fish the sooty tern could eat. Without his commitment, the centre would have had a hard time keeping the tern's diet at its best. The centre recently received a call from the Kruger Park saying a sooty tern in desperate need of Moholoholo's care had been found. Hopefully the two terns will become great friends and be rehabilitated into the wild before too long.
The civet, which is similar in form to a mongoose, has been highly sought after by those in the cologne industry because of the musk it produces. Although there are still enough civets to keep it off the endangered list, the cologne industry has diminished a great deal of this precious species. Earlier this year, a 6-week-old civet was rescued by the centre after he was suddenly orphaned; the staff believe her mother was swept away by the relentless flooding the area had recently faced. Weighing in at little more than half a kilogram, this baby civet was in dire need of continuous attention.
After arriving at the centre, she was a bit aggressive, but it didn't take long before she began to calm down. Nicknamed "Civey" by the locals who brought her in, she is still a bit skittish around large groups of people but will become more comfortable as she matures. She was entrusted into the care of one of the Centre's staff members as well as a student named Clare who ensures Civey is bottle fed six times a day as her diet requires. Stay tuned to Moholoholo's Rehab Centre's for an update on little Civey and the two sooty terns.
Incase you're not familiar with a sooty tern, it's simply a black and white seabird seen occasionally on the island beaches of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific. This type of bird is actually capable of staying out at sea for years at a time. The only real reasons a tern needs to come onto land is for breeding or to escape a violent storm as was the case with the one who arrived at the centre utterly fatigued in January of this year. It's an unusual occurrence to spot a sooty tern anywhere but the sea or the coast, so Moholoholo employees took great pleasure in caring for this special bird.
Completely dependent, the tern had to receive water through a tube and force fed six times a day by the rehab centre's staff. Because this type of bird is used to sea fish, a man from Phalaborwa was gracious enough to provide all the sea fish the sooty tern could eat. Without his commitment, the centre would have had a hard time keeping the tern's diet at its best. The centre recently received a call from the Kruger Park saying a sooty tern in desperate need of Moholoholo's care had been found. Hopefully the two terns will become great friends and be rehabilitated into the wild before too long.
The civet, which is similar in form to a mongoose, has been highly sought after by those in the cologne industry because of the musk it produces. Although there are still enough civets to keep it off the endangered list, the cologne industry has diminished a great deal of this precious species. Earlier this year, a 6-week-old civet was rescued by the centre after he was suddenly orphaned; the staff believe her mother was swept away by the relentless flooding the area had recently faced. Weighing in at little more than half a kilogram, this baby civet was in dire need of continuous attention.
After arriving at the centre, she was a bit aggressive, but it didn't take long before she began to calm down. Nicknamed "Civey" by the locals who brought her in, she is still a bit skittish around large groups of people but will become more comfortable as she matures. She was entrusted into the care of one of the Centre's staff members as well as a student named Clare who ensures Civey is bottle fed six times a day as her diet requires. Stay tuned to Moholoholo's Rehab Centre's for an update on little Civey and the two sooty terns.
About the Author:
Learn more about wildlife rehabilitation. Stop by Moholoholo's site where you can find out all about rescued wild animals and their rehabilitation so that they can be released back into the wild.
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