Our team was a rare mix of zoological and field veterinarians (Robin Radcliffe and Michelle Miller), University veterinary medical professor (Robin Gleed) and University human medical professor (Art Taft). Yet for all of this pioneering work there remains a dearth of scientifically based information on the most fundamental aspects of the anesthesia process in these prehistoric beasts. Capture and anesthesia of rhinoceros across Africa has been practiced for half a century and the principles of field anesthesia have been well established. It was here that we came to study and learn about the rhinoceros. Here in the jewel of Namibia lies one of Africa’s largest populations of the endangered desert black rhinoceros – Diceros bicornis bicornis. This oasis in an otherwise arid land abounds with wildlife including lions and leopard, giraffe and zebra, oryz and gazelle, and both black and white rhinoceros. This work was made possible through a collaborative effort with the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism’s Rhino Capture Unit under the direction of Pierre Du Preez and Mark Jago with support from rhinoceros expert, Pete Morkel.Įtosha National Park spans the northcentral and northwestern portion of Namibia and encompasses a diverse landscape of mixed acacia thorn scrub, open plains and mopane woodland, all of which surrounds the vast Etosha pan. Robin Radcliffe of the International Rhino Foundation’s Rhino Conservation Medicine Program led a team of scientists from Cornell University, the Palm Beach Zoo and the Medical College of Georgia to Namibia for the first-part of a two-year Morris Animal Foundation-funded Project to study the respiratory and thermoregulatory patterns of black rhinoceros during field capture.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |