Rescuing Ardwold Orphans at Laohu Valley

October 2006

On 24 September 2006, an aardwolf female was found in a trap on one of the neighbouring farms to Laohu Valley Reserve. Sheep farmers often set these traps to ensnare jackal and caracal which kill many of their lambs, but unfortunately harmless animals such as aardwolf also get caught. An aardwolf is a member of the canine family and it only eats termites, making it harmless as a predator of lambs.

This female had been in the trap for more than two days and her front paw was completely mangled and the bone was crushed. There was only one humane thing to do and that was to destroy her. Only then was it discovered that she was pregnant. The staff performed a caesarean section and delivered three slightly premature aardwolf pups – two females and one male.

Not knowing how premature these pups were and taking into account that they did not have the opportunity to suckle from the mother, their chances of survival were very slim. Newborns have a very weak immune system and suckling from the mother provides them with the crucial colostrum present in mothers milk. Without this, they are at the mercy of all forms of bacteria and have a much lower rate of survival than animals that suckle from their mothers.

The three newborns weighed 200g each, their claws were already fully formed and they were covered in fur, indicating that they would have been born within a day or two had the mother survived. The crucial period would now be the next 48 hours, getting them to drink and to urinate and defecate. Not having small enough bottles to bottle feed them, syringes were used and a mixture of fresh, full cream cow’s milk with an egg yolk added was given to them over the first 24 hours.

New born animals do not have the reflex action to urinate and defecate on their own. The mother would lick them while they suckle, thus stimulating this action. In the absence of a mother, they have to be artificially stimulated with cotton wool, dipped in warm water and within a few hours they were urinating. It took 2 full days before they defecated. All of this was good signs for their possible survival.

Wild canines and felines have a much more protein rich milk than cow’s milk, so a puppy supplementary milk mixture and small specially designed bottles for use in hand rearing animals were obtained, and the babies were put on this new formula after 48 hours. It took another 48 hours for them to adapt and accept the new milk as well as the teats of the bottles, but by day 5 they were feeding well.

Animals this small would constantly drink small amounts from the mother, while lying close to her body for heat and comfort. All of this has to be simulated and the pups were placed in a cardboard box with hot water bottles wrapped in towels to keep them warm and they were fed every two hours for the first two weeks. Records are also meticulously kept to ensure that they drink enough but not too much during this period. It has been proven that new born animals need to drink 20 – 25 % of their body weight, meaning for an animal weighing 200g it needs 50ml over a 24 hour period. This means that each feed should be approximately 4 ml and this is adapted as and when the animals put on weight.

By day 8 their eyes started opening. By day 14 they were becoming more active, crawling around and climbing over one another, but still sleeping most of the time. After 14 days, the feeding intervals were extended to every 4 hours and by week 6 this will be further extended to every 6 hours. At that stage, they will be introduced to solid food in the form of dog cubes soaked in water and mashed to make it palatable. Once this has been accomplished, termites will have to be sourced daily, because aardwolf are very specific in what they feed on.

The male is named Spike (Xiao Lang) and the two females are named Lucy (A Tu) and Blondie (Guai Guai). It is truly remarkable that all three have survived so far. Tigris and Jane, the two Chinese trainees at Laohu were trained and assisted in the techniques of hand rearing and have done extremely well in looking after these orphans. Opportunities to hand rear wild animals are extremely rare and seeing that Tigris and Jane are in South Africa to learn as much as possible about nature conservation and wildlife in general, this has been a unique and rewarding opportunity for them.

When Spike, Lucy and Blondie reach 6 weeks of age a decision will have to be made regarding their future. Simply taming them down and allowing them to become pets is not in their best interest. They are wild animals and domesticating them is fun for humans but unnatural to wild animals. Their health and general condition will be assessed and the stronger of them could be rehabilitated back into the wild. This will entail building them an enclosure in the open grassland and supplying them with termite mounds to enable them to learn to feed themselves. From this enclosure they can eventually be released back into the wild. Aardwolf are territorial and this would disadvantage Spike the male throughout his life. He would not have been taught survival techniques by his mother and he will have to compete with truly wild aardwolf males for his entire life. Lucy and Blondie, being female would not have to compete in this way and they might be better suited to re-wilding than Spike. The other option open to these three little creatures might be to donate them to a zoo should they not be strong enough to be rehabilitated.

Only time will tell what the future holds for Spike, Lucy and Blondie but for now they have survived and their chances of again roaming free in the wild look very promising.