Darting Wild Life In Those Dangerous Old Days
Mombasa Write Cahil Maduff Fondly Recalls His
Long Friendship with Late Ecologist Hugh Lamprey
Coastweek
By Cahil Maduff
One of the most dramatic photographs of immobilising dangerous game. These pioneer researchers were the fore runners of today's biologists and vets. ALL PHOTOS - MOHAMED ISMAIL
I flew south-east from Wilson Airport to west Kilimanjaro.
In those days there were a number of European-owned wheat and coffee farms" along the lower slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro .
My two passengers, a recently married couple from England were spending part of their vacation at a secluded but sprawling ranch about six thousand feet below the Shira Plateau on Kilimanjaro.
As the town of Moshi was a mere ten minutes away, I then took off from the ranch's graveled airstrip, and veered the Cessna 402 towards Moshi and south of the great mountain.
I flew low at about 1000 feet above ground.
During the short flight I could see giraffes, some zebra and even a pair of frightened black rhinos running for cover as I made a beeline for the little airport.
After I had landed, I brought the aircraft close to the only hangar there and parked it away from the heat of the midday sun.
It was August and the year was 1967.
I was hungry and took a taxi to the only restaurant in the Moshi of those days.
The Bamboo Restaurant was Greek-owned and served Gyros and Souvlaki as well as a number of other dishes.
As I entered the place, to my great surprise I found my friend, Mohamed Ismail, sitting at the far side of the dining area.
I had known Mohamed Ismail for some years now.
As Kiboko's District Game Warden in Kenya of those days, he was one of the few wardens who regularly maintained the airstrip which served his area of administration.
From time to time, I had flown clients of professional hunters to his airstrip to be picked up by their professional hunters who hunted in hunting blocks which were in those days administered by Mohamed Ismail.
We had lunch together and I inquired" as to why he was in Moshi?
Mohamed said that he had arrived there to attend a week's seminar on ecology and the relocation and immobilasation of big mammals.
The project was undertaken by the College of African Wildlife Management and the Serengeti Research Institute's director, Dr. Hugh Lamprey.
I found this news very intriguing as Mohamed had done capture work on zebra, wildebeest and eland in the old tradition of chasing animals in Land Rovers at between fifty and sixty miles per hour.
It was a dangerous but occupational part of a game warden's life.
Once one got close enough to the animal one reached out with his hands to grab the herbivore by the tail, while at the same time slowing the vehicle to a manageable speed.
At this instant one's team would jump out of the vehicle to rope and overpower the animal.
Those who saw the film "Hatari" will remember how unpredictably dangerous this technique was.
I knew Hugh Lamprey very well.
We were comrades-in-arms in the Palestine of 1948.
Hugh was then a subaltern in a tank unit.
Later, Hugh went to Oxford and got his degree in zoology and ecology.
As luck would have it, I chanced upon Hugh Lamprey at Wilson Airport a few days later when he was getting his Piper Super Cub serviced.
We talked of old times and the different things we had done as we lunched at the Dam Busters Club.
Hugh then invited me to the Serengeti to attend the seminar which would take place at his headquarters at Seronera and to watch some demonstrations in the field.
He emphasised that among the researchers, Toni Harthoorn would be a major contributor especially in the field of animal immobilization.
Toni was a pioneer in this field, and as a veterinary scientist, he had developed the famous Capture gun which was used with a hypodermic needle and a ballistic dart on wildlife for purposes" of scientific studies and relocation.
Toni experimented successfully with a mixture of Etorphine hydrochloride (M-99) and a Phenothioazine tranquilizers such as Acepromazine or Methotrimeprazine.
Elephants, buffaloes and hippos were successfully darted, tagged and then given an antidote to bring them back from the anaesthetic effects of these drugs.
It was on August 16th of 1967, when Hugh Lamprey and I flew from Arusha to the Serengeti in his Piper Super Cub.
I had driven to Arusha in my Peugeot saloon car from Nairobi .
Our flight went across Manyara and over the escarpment which forms the western wall of the Great Rift Valley .
Oldonyo Lengai, the Mountain of God as the Maasai call it, was over to our right and a little later"we flew across the Ngorongoro Crater and then descended gradually across the vast Serengeti Plains.
Soon we approached Naabi Hill and finally landed at Seronera.
Next day we flew a short distance east and landed on the plains north of Lake Lagarja .
Hugh landed on an overgrazed patch of flat land.
There were no airstrips here.
About forty people were already gathered here.
These included lecturers from the College of African Wildlife Management , a couple of researchers, and game wardens from various countries in Africa .
They stood around an experimental exclosure set up by the Research Institute to determine the rate as well as the grazing effects and food preferences of the various herbivores on the species of grass which thrived on the Serengeti Plains.
Notable among lecturers was Tom Gilbert of the U.S. National Parks Service, Patrick Hemingway, Captain Frank Poppleton, Gilbert Child, Tony Sinclair, Anthony J. Mence who had succeeded Hugh Lamprey as the principal of the College of African Wildlife Management and Hans Kruuk who was doing research on Hyenas.
Lectures and demonstrations were conducted in the field and an American television crew covered all the action.
The men gathered there had formidable credentials.
Article and photos at: http://www.coastweek.com/3312-33.htm
