Good news/bad news

       After the initial euphoria of getting my hands on some incredible animals wears off, I am forced to face the sadness of some of their situations.  Most of these animals were brought to Moholoholo because they were abandoned, orphaned, injured, poisoned, or sick.  In order for them to survive, they must be treated ever so attentively.
       Especially the baby animals must be coddled if they are to have any chance of living.  For animal lovers like me, that at first feels like a great opportunity.  
        BUT, the reality is that by coddling these babies, they will be irrevocably tamed, and that means they cannot ever be released back into the wild.  The baby lions for example will live out their days in captivity, because they would get into SO much trouble in the wild.  They obviously will have no fear of people, and in fact will expect people to be kind and nurturing toward them.  That would be a terrible mistake for them.
        It is a startling thing to realize that even Africa is becoming too small for wildlife, and that while  we humans can take some credit for some of these animals' survival, we also have to accept the blame for the fact that they will never be able to be wild animals again.
        But for the animals that come in as sick or wounded adults, the story is more promising.  Sometimes they can be healed in a relatively short time, and then they can be released.  I was lucky enough to see two releases.
        The first was a brown snake eagle, who was poisoned.  Why would anyone poison an eagle?  Well, jackals are a terrible problem for cattle ranchers.  They eat cattle.  There are lots of jackals, and a rancher can't shoot enough of them.  So he poisons a carcass, and they're ALL gone overnight. YAY!!!!       But everything else that eats the carcass, and everything else that eats the carcasses of the poisoned jackals is also dead, or at least well on its way there.  
      So goes the brown snake eagle.  But this guy, after a couple of weeks of careful care at Moholoholo, got well and as a result, got free--hopefully NOT to be poisoned again.  Moholoholo tries to educate ranchers about these dangers, but you can imagine how hard it is to convince some one who is making a bare subsistence living that he shouldn't poison the predators that are killing his most valuable possessions! 
          And then there was this leopard who was apparently struck by a vehicle.  He too was revived by the care at the Rehab Center, and, even more importantly, a reserve that does NOT hunt leopards, agreed that he could be released there.  It's HARD to find such locations!  And so here he is, being released.  Let's hope that freedom serves him well!