The Travelling Vet
Page 30
I sat gazing out of the window as we journeyed home. We passed fields of sugar cane, orange groves and banana plantations, fence lines separating them from grazing antelope and zebras, and a small congress of baboons crossing the empty road ahead.
It had been an exhilarating day in the African bush – just another in a fun and varied career to date, and a long way from the dreams of an ambitious six-year-old. It was pretty hard to believe. What adventures lay ahead? With that thought I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Wildebeest: fast facts
Connochaetes taurinus: The blue wildebeest
Distribution: Southern and eastern Africa. There are 5 subspecies.
Names: A male is called a ‘bull’, a female is a ‘cow’, and the young a ‘calf’. A group of wildebeest is called a ‘confusion’.
Life span: 20 years.
Habitat: Short-grass plains on the edge of bush-covered acacia savannahs, migrating to coincide with annual rainfall and grass-growing patterns.
Diet: Wildebeest are herbivorous grazers, primarily eating short grasses.
Gestation: 257 days, usually producing a single calf.
Weight: 20 kg at birth, reaching 260–290 kg as adults.
Growth: A newborn calf will stand within 15 minutes of being born and is capable of keeping up with the herd after a few days. They are weaned at about 4 months, but remain with their mother for the first year, at which point males will leave the herd to form a bachelor group. Females reach sexual maturity at about 2 years old and males between 3–4 years of age. Between 4–5 years of age the males will establish their own territory.
Body temperature: 38–39.2 °C.
Facts: They can reach speeds of up to 50 mph, making them one of the top ten fastest land animals. Calves are born within 2–3 weeks of the rainy season, which allows the lush grasses to provide nutritional support for a cow to feed her calf.
Conservation: In the Bible, humanity is given ‘dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth’ (Genesis 1: 28). The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘dominion’ as an authority to rule. But with that authority comes a responsibility. We all inherently crave leadership that is principled rather than exploitative, and the same should apply to humanity’s relationship with nature.
The seventeenth-century poet John Donne famously claimed that ‘No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend’s or of thine own were: any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.’
Maybe ‘man’ should be replaced with ‘species’ in this quotation, for when a species becomes extinct, life on earth as a whole, including humanity, is the worse off for it. An estimated 200 species are going extinct every single day, a rate that is a hundred times faster than what might be considered normal. John Donne’s mourning bell should be ringing round the clock. In the last forty years the number of wild animals on the planet has halved. The majority of these species disappear unnoticed by most of the world, but you just have to consider the popularity of nature or wildlife documentaries, or of zoos and nature reserves, to realize how entwined humanity is with the natural world. The organization United for Wildlife has set out to unite the world’s leading wildlife charities under a common purpose to create a global movement for change (see www.unitedforwildlife.org). What world do we want to leave to our children and our children’s children? We each have a duty and a responsibility in caring for the natural world and we can each do something positive to conserve it. So what will you do?
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I have already quoted John Donne’s famous statement, ‘No man is an island, entire of itself’, and never is that more true than with this book. I have been incredibly privileged in the support, encouragement and help I have had in writing it, from friends, family and colleagues.
In truth I have felt for many years that I would one day like to write a book documenting some of the amazing experiences I have been fortunate enough to have, but I always envisaged that it would be many years away. It was thanks to the huge encouragement of Rachel Mills and her team at Furniss Lawton, and Clare Drysdale, Kate Ballard and their team at Allen and Unwin, that this dream could be realized at all, let alone on such an accelerated time frame.
But if it hadn’t been for the support, help and inspiration I have received throughout my career to date, I would never have had any stories to tell and so these groups need to be mentioned. There are few bonds stronger than those made while enduring the highs and lows of a six-year veterinary course together; I want to thank those friends who did the journey with me and for their continued friendship and wisdom. Some of the most cherished memories of my career to date come from my first job at Charter Veterinary Group in North Devon, a wonderful team of people who helped grow my passion and love for the profession. Larkmead Veterinary Group in Oxfordshire was a wonderfully helpful work environment too. The team at Dragon Veterinary Centre, Cheltenham must deserve a special mention for being so incredibly supportive, encouraging and accommodating in allowing me the time to write. Clients also have been a great source of encouragement in their words of motivation or the enthusiasm with which they have spurred me on. The team at Wildlife Vets in South Africa have annually welcomed me with open arms, showing, teaching and allowing me to experience so much. My annual trips to South Africa truly are the fulfilment of a childhood dream. The team at Haifu Medical Technology, Chongqing, China, have been incredibly helpful and generous in supporting my VetLIFU work, in their incredible hospitality and in arranging my time at Chongqing Zoo. The team at Chongqing Zoo were incredibly welcoming and hospitable during my time with them.
These thanks so far have been professionally based – to colleagues, many of whom I now consider close friends – but wider thanks must go to a countless number of other friends, who have been so wonderfully supportive, encouraging, helpful, dependable and wise advisers. To name some would be to omit others, but I can’t begin to express my gratitude to you all.
Most importantly I have to thank my wonderful family. My parents, who never doubted my desire and passion to pursue a career in veterinary medicine and who have been supportive, wise and encouraging, every step of the way. My three brothers, who demonstrate the very definition of brotherly love in their care, kindness, help, encouragement, affirmation and the fun and laughter we share. My sisters-in-law, who bring out the best in my brothers and too have been so incredibly supportive. My wider family, including my late grandparents and Laura’s family, have all played a huge, influential and supportive role. My beautiful and wonderful wife Laura; my best friend, travelling companion, wise counsellor, challenger and promoter, who drives me to be the best person I can be and to be a fellow advocate of the animal kingdom for which we both share the same passion.
Finally, I want to thank God for his ‘indescribable gift’. The greatest adventure in life is discovering your talents and using them to the glory of God. Thank you.
Jonathan Cranston
July 2018
Picture Section
Aged 2 with my grandparents’ dog Ben on holiday in the New Forest; we were inseparable.
Helping out with lambing in North Devon, aged 8.
Proud of my chicken-wrangling skills, aged 3.
A Brazilian three-banded armadillo – the nine-banded armadillo’s little cousin.
The Wildlife Vet’s capture team walking a giraffe to the trailer.
The head collar allows for some control as we drive the giraffe out of the bush to the waiting trailer and with a blindfold on and ear plugs in, he is much calmer, but I still had to be careful that he didn’t knock me off the platform with an effortless swipe of his neck.
Bjorn demonstrating successful cardiopulmonary r
esuscitation on a giraffe.
Leopards are very cuddly when they are asleep! This was a young female leopard we worked on out in Africa.
I had to get a quick photo with her before she was woken up.
No surprise that these Boer goats were more interested in their food than posing for a photo with me!
Job done! Elephants successfully sedated for relocation, there’s just time for a quick photo with Derek, Wayne and Lotter before they wake up.
Standing on the trailer with Lotter at our final destination, just before we unloaded and woke him and his fellow elephants.
The first elephant I ever worked on (a 30-year-old bull elephant), having just finished replacing his tracking collar.
Two beautiful, fully-horned rhinos. I took this in Kruger National Park in 2013. On my last two trips to Kruger I have not seen a single rhino; their absence a tragic reality and proof of how hard the park has been hit by poaching in the last decade.
A successful humane dehorning; a good team can carry out the procedure in about twenty minutes with minimal stress to the rhino, but sadly even dehorned rhinos are now being targeted by poachers.
Riding one of my grandparents’ donkeys, aged 7. Noddy, Tizzy and Carole gave me a real love for these wonderful animals from a young age.
A selfie with my famous friend Pollyanne.
This Simmental calf suffered a broken leg after his mother accidentally trod on him, but a month in a cast ensured the bone could heal fully.
Not the famous ferret Freddie, but still equally cute.
Large White sows can weigh up to 300 kg so need to be respected, particularly when they are nursing a litter.
At 4.6 metres long and weighing over 700 kg, this fella (an African Nile crocodile, which we were relocating) was seriously intimidating up close.
Conducting my clinical examination on a panda cub.
She took some persuading, but the bamboo shoots convinced giant panda Xi-Xi to pose for a photo with me.
My first encounter with a grey kangaroo was out in Australia. Little did I know then that I would be chasing one around a vet practice one day!
Final checks before taking off to dart some zebras.
Relieved and happy, posing with one of the male zebras I successfully darted.
Shane the sugar glider being positioned for surgery, pom-poms clearly on display, moments before the incident happened!
A Blue wildebeest, like any wild animal, is much less intimidating when it’s asleep. This one was from another capture.
Aerial view of the large tarpaulin enclosure, funnelling down towards the truck. Several of the curtains are closed, separating off the different sections.
Max and Mungo, my faithful companions.
First published in Great Britain in 2018 by Allen & Unwin
Text and photographs (unless otherwise noted) copyright © Jonathan Cranston, 2018
Illustrations copyright © Sarah Jones, www.sjonesfineart.com
The moral right of Jonathan Cranston to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Every effort has been made to trace or contact all copyright holders. The publishers will be pleased to make good any omissions or rectify any mistakes brought to their attention at the earliest opportunity.
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Hardback ISBN: 978 1 76063 319 6
E-Book ISBN: 978 1 76063 762 0