From growing up on a suckler farm in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, vet student Rebecca Breslin was not too familiar with dehorning rhinos and scaling buffalo before heading out on her recent travels to South Africa.
After a few years studying veterinary medicine at the University of Warsaw, Poland, Breslin decided to put her experience to work, by volunteering with wildlife in Limpopo, South Africa.
“Before going, I knew farms as cows and sheep, but the farms there are all rhinos, wildebeest, zebra, and the likes, so there is quite a difference,” Breslin said.
On the ranch Breslin was staying on for two weeks, the family had giraffes, a hippo, lots of antelope and impala, along with wilderbeest and hyenas.
“It was hard to get used to all the different species, but the medication was very much the same as what we have here, so I didn’t feel totally unprepared,” Breslin said.
One of Breslin’s responsibilities during the trip involved helping wildlife vets to dehorn rhinos, in order to protect the species from poaching.
She said that the process involved darting the rhinos from a helicopter, where vets on the ground would then tend to their horns, by firstly covering the animals eyes and ears.
A catheter is then placed through the rhino’s ears in case extra drugs are needed during the operation and then a small electric saw is used to remove the horn safely.
Breslin said that the horn of a rhino is “worth more than gold per kilo” in South Africa.
Rhinos use their horns for many functions, including defending territories, and defending calves from other rhinos and predators. However, dehorning does not have any effects on population productivity.
As horns do grow back over time, ‘Save the Rhino International’ recommends dehorning every 12-24 months in order to be an effective deterrent.
Another day of work in Limpopo involved tending to a buffalo bull, who had been in a fight, and needed wounds cleaned, along with antibiotics.
“Everything just seems a little bit more backward there compared to home,” Breslin said.
“To tend to the buffalo, he was darted first, and then to move him, he was put on to something like a stretcher and then loaded on to a pickup truck and driven away,” she explained.
South Africa
Breslin described the wildlife vets that she worked alongside as “fearless”. Breslin said that there was one day when a vet chased a half sedated buffalo, before tackling it to the ground, so that the animal would not get away without treatment.
Apart from the various different species, Breslin also had to adapt to a change in lifestyle habits for the two weeks.
She was awoken each day by a 3:00a.m or 4:00a.m alarm clock, to beat the heat in the region, with most days reaching around 27° to 28°, and one day in particular reaching 37°.
Despite what some may describe as off-putting features of the trip, Breslin said she would “love to go back and help more animals” in the area, as well as some of the people that have less access to needs than others.
“Going out there, I had thought two weeks would be a very long time, but sure we we’re all crying when it was time to go home,” Breslin said.
Breslin is soon to go back to college for a year and half left of studying, before she is fully qualified.
University
“I am excited to come home, but it used to be a case of counting down the days, now the closer I get to qualify, the more I don’t want it to finish.
“I’m really enjoying college and all the friends I made, obviously it’s not great during exam season, but I do love it,” Breslin said.
She said that university in Poland is like “a home away from home”, with so many Irish students also studying there.
Her plans after university in Poland are to come back to Ireland and remain helping out on the family-run suckler farm, as well as hoping to work in a mixed veterinary clinic for small and large animals.
Breslin said the vets she currently works with are all “amazing”, and that it can be “fearful” that one day that will be her job, however she said the South African experience has given her “a wee bit more confidence”.