40 kilometers east of Vinhok, the capital of Namibia, we
find a place where humans care for wild animal orphans,
Nusa. Heading up the sanctuary is Marlise
van Fiden. Animals are her life and she has a rare
connection with them, from the biggest to the smallest, the most
endangered to the most abundant. Her
husband Rudy is a medical doctor and shares his wife's love of
wild animals, which can come in handy if a vet isn't available,
but all he really wants to do is fly his Cessna 182.
Zahio is going to follow in his parents' footsteps and has the
fantastic opportunity to spend his formative years growing up in the
great outdoors, where he has lots of animal as well as
Bushmen friends. The ancient art
of tracking still survives with a handful of Bushmen trackers.
Give it is Nangusa's expert in reading the signs in the felt.
And then of course, there are the really wild inhabitants of
this amazing sanctuary.
In this episode. In an unfortunate
event, a farmer accidentally plowed open a den and found
14 wild dog pups. They ended up here at Nangusa,
and they will form the core of a breeding group.
But simply arriving at Nangus doesn't mean they'll definitely
survive. One of the pups is not gaining weight, and
Maurice has to make the decision on whether he will be strong enough to
survive.
An injured baby baboon arrives at Nangusa and after some
medical attention also needs to be integrated into the group.
The 3 caracals are nearly ready to be returned to their natural
environment, coming and going as they please.
But the two leopard cubs are growing up and could be a threat
to Zahel.
It's 6 o'clock in the morning. The vourden household wakes up
to another glorious Thursday at Nangusa. The leopard cubs have
been in the house for 9 months, but Marlise is worried that they're now
too big to be around Zakheel.
Zao is very excited, as it's time for the highlight of the
week. The wild dog pups, his favorites are being weighed,
and he gets to help out. The sa do?
No, so like, so come on.
While Marlise and Zarea discuss their day in Bushmen,
Rudy feels slightly left out.
I don't have a clue what they're saying. He doesn't
speak Bushman and the clicking sounds make no sense to him
whatsoever.
Rudy may not speak their language,
but he cares deeply for the health of the Bushmen people, and he is
off to the clinic, which he visits once a week when not at his practice in
Windhoek. Breakfast
done, time to see how the litter of wild dog pups is doing.
It's winter in Namibia and nighttime temperatures can drop to
-4 °C, so they're kept in a back room of the
kitchen. They are very susceptible to
diseases and germs, and before they handle the dogs, Marli and
Zareo put on surgical gloves. They
don't make them small enough for Zao's little hands.
I know.
They need to be close together in a small space, as they would have been in a
den underground and always in very close contact with each
other. They stink. You cannot imagine the
smell like rotting meat.
We've cared for a lot of animals in this house, and I've never smelled
anything like this, but it's best for the pups at this stage.
The gloves protect Zakhig and myself a little from the smell, which
helps a lot if he wants to make friends at school.
Yeah.
They are put into a transport crate and taken outside to an enclosure
where they can feed and frolic in the sunshine. If they were living in
a den in the wild, they would also come out when the pack returns from
hunting and the adult dogs feed them.
For Flo and Dana, the two resident scientists at Nunya,
this is an unexpected and unique opportunity to study these
rare and endangered animals in such a hands-on and controlled
environment. Once a week, the
pups are weighed and their vital stats are taken to see how they're
growing and whether all of them are healthy and gaining weight.
Maurice is worried about one of the pups as he's not gaining weight like the
others. The litter is valuable for conservation, so she
hopes her fears will be put to rest and the little runt will be fine.
The idea of these puppies is to breed with
them and also start meta population on lycoy
where we can reintroduce them back into the wild.
They all look the same size to me, which is great. This means that the
little one is catching up with his brothers and sisters.
They are all black when born, but as they grow older, they get that
coat that gives them the name Africa's Painted Dogs.
They are only 15 weeks old, but every day they look more and more
like adults.
Yeah. It is hard work for
someone as young as a heel barely bigger than the
dogs, but what an experience to do this.
And all before the school day starts.
With all 14 puppies safely back in the enclosure, it's time
to start the scientific part of the day. This is
the first time such a complete wild dog litter can be monitored
closely in a controlled environment. Each pup needs to be
weighed and the data recorded. In this way, information is
gathered on how other wild dog pups probably develop and grow in the
wild. This sort of information
is incredibly valuable for future conservation efforts.
Wild dogs are classified as endangered by the International Union for
Conservation of Nature and populations are continuing to
decline as a result of ongoing conflict with humans,
infectious diseases, and habitat destruction.
Look at.
The pups are now 15 weeks old and weigh on average 4 kg
each, and they'll only be ready to start breeding in about 5 years'
time.
So once a week we
weigh all these little puppies to make sure they're
growing, they're picking up weight, and then we also put identification collars around
them to make sure that the specific little puppy is picking
up weight and he's doing fine. Really?
By the time they're ready to start their families, Zahea will be in grade
5, and like his mother, he'll have a strong connection with many
animals at Nangusa.
Oh yes.
Oh I'm sure the little one I was worried about
is the same weight as the others, so I have no reason to worry
anymore. They are all fit and strong.
1600.
It's got a
tiny. You're the monster of the show, you know.
Each dog gets a temporary collar to identify the ones that have been weighed and
measured. These will soon be ripped apart
or taken off. M 1
Sometimes it's really difficult for me to release animals back into the wild because you
get so attached to it and you know the history of that animal, it comes in
sometimes a little bit of abuse, you know, farmers been uh shooting
their mums and. And it's really for me, sometimes
heartbreaking. It's like almost you kick them out of the nest. But
the nice thing of it is we always go back and
we follow up with these animals on a daily basis and we use
different methods of doing it. We're using SPU identification,
collaring, and then also microchipping. Like for instance, these little
puppies. Um, we've always used little collars, but,
uh, this is how they end up. And
we decided this is not enough because we have to do it every day or every
second day and we decided we're going to do microchipping. This is now going to be a
number they're going to have for the rest of their lives and also make it a lot easier for us
to see their development and then also in the future which dogs are the good
breeders and which ones are not. And these dogs will be
released in the next 4 years back into Namibia. And then we have to put it
in just underneath the skin. Oh.
OK, he's done. But I'm mama.
It's the one with the black bag.
pull back black with only a small white spot right off the tail base.
Time to eat. At this age, the dogs already have to
eat solids. At the den, the pack would come back from a
hunt and regurgitate pieces of meat and the pups would
eat that, sometimes regurgitating it themselves and then
eating it again. I give them
chicken cut up in blocks. To supplement their diet, I also add some
bone meal and vitamins.
Zahia is learning that you have to measure and be precise when feeding
young animal orphans as they are very sensitive. The
slightest mistake and they could suffer from deficiencies.
I'm not. Thank you, bye.
Feeding time for the pups, and just as in nature, they compete
for food.
While they're eating, Marlise keeps a close eye on them and makes sure each of
them gets food, but leaves them to fend for themselves.
Thank you.
Oh
It is 7:30 and Zaheo is finishing the last of
his breakfast before it is time to settle for the local school on the
reserve where he'll meet up with his friends,
Bossy and Adar.
I got to see So here Anyway, I'll
go to school, see. I know the benefits of talking with
Bushmen in their own language. They
know the felt so well, and we can learn so much from them.
That's why I'm so happy that Sir Hugh has this opportunity to learn the
language. But
He will only realize how lucky he is growing up on the reserve when he
is much older, but for now, it's part of his daily
routine, and he's looking forward to seeing his friends and spending
the morning at school.
It's here with his friends at school that Suh is learning Bushman,
and that's what he now speaks most of the time.
I
Zahel, Bossi and Ada spend some time playing before
the serious part of the school day starts.
Yeah.
Look
Oh.
At about 10 o'clock, Marli receives news of yet another little baboon that
has been orphaned, and she gets the clinic ready. Carol
arrives a few minutes later with little Shawna clinging to her.
E She's a beautiful little girl's lovely
face. Carol just picked her up now from people that drove
all the way from the north of Namibia to Windhoek. It's in the
central part to drop off the little baby. Her mom
was shot while she was pregnant with her, and that's how we
think she got injured in her foot. I estimate
her she must be around about 4 to 5
months old, cause then that's when they get these yellow eyebrows,
um, and then they become a real handful. So that's how she ended up with
us. OK, I just wanna have a look at her foot. Oh God.
I just wanna clean it up. There's a little bit of a small cut on it still.
That
I'm but now, almost done.
Um, she's in really good state. The only thing with her is she's got an
abnormality on her little foot, um, because of the injury.
And, um, but she's healthy, she's fat. There's no ticks that I can
see on her, and I think she's really in a good state and she's gonna
fit in very well. OK, I just wanna give her.
Just the multivitamin syrup. It's
actually an electrolyte. So if she's been
dehydrated, which she doesn't look like.
This will help a little bit. Come it tastes like a cool drink.
We know he's here. Yeah
was that The
next step for her is to um get reintroduced to
the group, and yeah, and then she just has to settle in with the babies.
Cleo, Medusa and Yoda, the three caracals, are happy and
well nourished, but this wasn't always the case.
Sisters Cleo and Medusa were kept at a lodge but were severely
underfed, so much so that they could barely walk or
see. Luckily, a friend of the owner took them to a vet
and then they came here.
Yoda's mum was shot when he was still tiny, and he could fit in the
palm of Marlisa's hand when he arrived at Nusa.
Oh.
Now, after 3 years, these graceful cats are being let out on
a regular basis to explore the great outdoors and
return for visits and food when they feel like it.
Yeah.
And It
We've collared two females, Medusa and Cleo,
and, uh, they're actually doing very well. They're good hunters in the veld. They go for smaller
prey birds and rabbits, sometimes mice,
but they always come back and they book back into the hotel and just have
a nice meal for almost a week and then they will leave again.
They're ready to survive on their own out there, and they'll
probably stay away for longer and longer periods of time until they're
feeling confident to hunt and survive on their own.
This is hard work, long hours, and a huge responsibility for all of
us. But when you see wild animals like these,
confident and free, it makes it all worthwhile.
Two of the cats have radio collars on so that they can be tracked.
This is to check that they're coping in the wild, and also to make sure that
they don't venture onto farmland and find themselves in conflict with
farmers in the area.
That Yeah.
Mm.
Due to Marlisa's good care, Cleo is now fully recovered from
her nutritional deficiencies and weighs in at a hefty
11 kg. On her fortnightly outings,
she supplements her food intake with birds, rodents, and small
mammals. Hello
Because the cars come and go as they please, Marlise
doesn't often get a chance to walk with them. It's something she really
enjoys. She doesn't know if this would be her last walk
with them before they find a permanent home back in the wild.
Back at Maurice's house, Mbili and Shakira are a
handful, destroying the furniture in the process.
It is 2:30 and Zahel is heading home.
The leopards are now the age and size where they could seriously hurt
Zakhio or even kill him. And Mar
Lisa is running late.
They are wild animals and play rough, and since he's a small
boy could mistake him for prey.
Get out of there. Luckily, Marlise arrives home just
before him. I'm.
These leopard cubs have been with us now for 9 months and they're becoming too
big and also dangerous for Zakheel. So it's time for them to leave the
house. We have to make an enclosure for them.
This is exactly why so many orphans kept by people as
pets end up here at Nusa.
A cute ball of fluff will turn into a serious predator a few
months later. Malia's home is designed to
accommodate animals, but Mbili and Shakira are now
too big and a danger to Zaka. They'll have to
move out of the house.
The local cheetah and leopard keeper Johannes helps Marli to lure
them into the crates to be moved to an enclosure.
In their enclosure, the caracals are staying for the night.
The wild dog pups are enjoying their last meal of the day before
settling down.
Peace restored, it's the end of another day at Nangus
as the sun sets over the Namibian landscape.
In the next episode, Wra the bat-eared fox strolls into
the meerkat's enclosure and Marlise has to restore the peace.
Marle spends time with the baby baboons in the vet, an outing
they always enjoy, but not all of them like bathtub.