 |
Driving Miss Dassie
Over the festive season, the Johannesburg Zoo received an urgent
from Free-Me asking whether the Zoo would assist Lyndhurst BMW
with an “animal issue” as it is close by.
Four staff members (Dominic, Ian, Althea and Wendy) duly drove
to Lyndhurst BMW.
A client living in a lush Lonehill Estate brought her car in for
a valet without telling the mechanics about the scenario
surfacing in her engine.
On their arrival they found the car abandoned on the wash bay as
the valet staff were not going anywhere near the car until Zoo
staff came to the rescue.
Management at BMW found out at a later stage that the client was
aware of a group of hyraxes in her garage and possibly her BMW
and she thought that a speedy drive on the highway would rid her
car of them, well, it didn’t.
BMW management was very concerned for the well-being of the
dassies and offered all their support and equipment to Zoo staff
to enable them to take the dassies out safely.
The first one was retrieved from the engine compartment, covered
in grease. An hour later another two were taken out of another
part of the engine and one aggressive (mamma) Dassie was rescued
from the wheel hub at the back of the bumper. Only one of the
Hyraxes seemed hurt by a fan belt burn.
The Zoo staff and four Hyraxes returned to the Zoo. About an
hour later however, another call came through, as more movement
was evident. Another two Hyraxes were retrieved. One youngster
was retrieved on the chassis plate. The chassis plate had to be
removed to get this one out.
All six were safely admitted to the Zoo’s veterinary hospital
for health exams, food and shelter. However, one died the next
morning due to trauma and the rest were fetched by Free-me who
took over the rehabilitation and release of Ms Dassie and her
family.
|
<< Back
to more news
|
|
|
