It’s not every day that your game of golf gets interrupted by a grumpy buffalo bull—one of Africa’s meanest lone rangers and certainly not your first choice as a golfing partner. Last week’s rescue had us sweating a bit, but with the help of a crane truck and wonderful community spirit, we managed to relocate him safely.

It’s been a busy few months at VFWT. As we speak, our teams have just finished distributing essential veterinary supplies for mobile bomas, which are crucial for combating disease in the upcoming rainy season. Since June, we’ve vaccinated 1691 dogs against rabies and distemper. Given that these animals live along the wildlife interface, every vaccine is a significant step toward protecting our communities and wildlife. Other highlights include hosting our Vulture Awareness Day, conducting a teachers’ Eco-Club Training workshop, and having our laboratory technician represent us at the Society for Wildlife Forensic Science conference in Malaysia! We have more good news to share, but I’ll let you read that below.

As always, we continue to rescue all sorts of wildlife, from giraffes and kudus to parrots, warthogs, and elephants. And as always, we couldn’t do it without your support.

For Wild Africa,

Jessica Dawson
Executive Director

Rescue and Rehabilitation: Meet Connie!

We’re excited to introduce Connie, a resilient two-week-old female bushbuck rescued from the Victoria Falls rainforest! Last month, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority alerted us to this orphaned little antelope. Despite the hope that her mother might return—common behavior among antelope—she sadly didn’t, likely due to human interference.

Upon her arrival at our rehabilitation center, Connie was a bit dehydrated and very hungry. Thanks to our dedicated vet team, she adapted well to the milk formula and is thriving!

Being located in Victoria Falls National Park gives us a unique advantage; once Connie is old enough and the drought conditions improve, we plan to release her back into the wild where she belongs. We’re committed to her journey to recovery and can’t wait to see her flourish in her natural habitat!

Knowledge as Power with Financial Literacy

Spreading our wings in our vulture conservation

VFWT is thrilled to share that this year we have taken on Dr. Jon Maxwell, a veterinarian and PhD student from Colorado State University, Fort Collins, who is helping us with our vulture conservation project and conducting research on white-backed vulture populations. Jon’s work will continue to build on the data we have been collecting on the nesting population of vultures since 2013. This data will be expanded to include Hwange National Park, in addition to Zambezi National Park, Kazuma National Park, and Matetsi Safari Areas.

Jon has also been working to fit tracking devices on white-backed vultures in geographic locations where we have data gaps. Recently, he and the ZimParks team deployed nine devices in Hwange National Park (below). These devices are critical not only for helping us understand vulture movements, but they also use an AI algorithm to filter data points and alert us to locations that need investigating. These may include carcasses, poaching incidents, or natural deaths of the birds, as well as nesting sites. This data helps us monitor large-scale landscapes and the drivers of vulture decline.

Jon will also be working to understand the disease implications of Avian Influenza, as well as leading efforts on white-backed vulture populations to determine if this disease and associated toxins may be contributing to their health issues or mortality.

We’re thrilled to share that our lion conservation program has successfully changed the collars on many of our previously-collared lions in Zambezi National Park. These collars are crucial for monitoring individuals that reside on the park’s periphery, where they may cause conflict or be young males dispersing from their prides. They also help us track individuals at high risk due to conflict, disease, or territorial disputes. The collars have already played an important role in mitigating some conflicts involving young males that have dispersed from the Hippo Creek pride.

Our trained staff, known as Community Guardians (below), respond to alerts, warn the community, move livestock, and help guide lions back into protected areas. With the generous support of the Lion Recovery Fund, we’ve increased the number of Guardians from four to eight. We’ve strategically selected Guardians who live in the lion-livestock conflict zones to ensure they can actively engage with their communities and prevent conflicts.

As we head into the rainy season, when conflicts tend to increase, these brave team members will be critical in protecting both livelihoods and lions. If you would like to support our teams, please consider donating!