GIRAFFE CAPTURE

BRINGING DOWN THE LONG NECKS

Tembe Elephant Park, South Africa.

In 2012 while working on another story related to the big tuskers of the region I was fortunate enough to spend the day with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s game capture team. The purpose of this mission was to capture and relocate several giraffe from Tembe Elephant park and relocate them to other parks in the region.

Giraffe Capture is an incredibly time sensitive and laborious task, and if not done correctly, very dangerous for the game capture team as well as the animals. Thankfully there where no mishaps during this mission and all the animals were successfully captured and transferred to their new homes.

Most giraffe captures are done by immobilization. After immobilization the giraffe is blindfolded, its ears are blocked with cotton wool and a set of ropes and a halter is attached to the animal. The veterinarian on site will then reverse the immobilizing drug completely and the animal will be guided with the ropes onto the recovery trailer from where it will be cross-loaded onto a specialized giraffe transport trailer. Once the animals have calmed down they are then relocated to their new environments.