Doctoring zoo animals requires a lot of outside help

Doctoring zoo animals requires a lot of outside help

Monday, January 22, 2007
By Linda Wilson Fuoco, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

How do you administer anesthesia to a giraffe?

It's something that is very seldom done, and there are "only about three veterinarians in the world who have expertise with that," said Dr. Robert Hilsenroth, executive director of the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians.

The really hard part would be getting a breathing tube down that long, long neck.

"You know how we ventilate a giraffe? With a specially modified leaf blower," Dr. Hilsenroth said. "And you need to use a ladder to hold their neck in place."

Diagnostic procedures, treatment and surgical techniques for zoo animals have advanced by leaps and bounds in recent years. Veterinarians can now save animals that would have died or been euthanized 10 or 20 years ago.

Because zoo veterinarians care for so many species, no individual vet can be an expert on every animal.

"One of the very interesting things about being a zoo veterinarian is you are constantly working on animals and doing things that have never been done before," said Barbara Baker, a veterinarian by training and background. She is currently not working as a veterinarian -- she is CEO and president of the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium.

"Advances are happening almost at the speed of light, partly because of the Internet," Dr. Hilsenroth said. The 900-member Zoo Veterinarians group meets yearly to discuss new treatments and advances. Thanks to the Internet and group e-mailing lists, on a daily basis animal doctors can get answers from veterinarians who have successfully treated the same problem.

"And we owe so much, in the way of thanks, to our human counterparts," he said of the medical doctors and dentists who help with zoo surgeries and procedures.

Giraffe surgeries are rare, and none has been done at the Pittsburgh Zoo. Zoo surgeries, in general, are infrequent. But dental procedures, like the root canal that Koda the Pittsburgh polar bear underwent earlier this month, are increasingly common.

Bridgeville dentist David Regine has been volunteering his skills for 13 years at the local zoo. While his patients are usually people, he has plied his trade on the polar bear, a beaver, an alligator, a leopard, a lion, an elephant and a gorilla.

On one occasion he drilled decay out of the tooth of a meerkat and put in a filling.

"The gorilla had an abscess that was potentially life-threatening," Dr. Regine said. One of the Pittsburgh elephants, Savannah, had an infected tusk that had to be extracted.

"Teeth and tusks break or crack and infection gets in," he said. Such infections can travel to the chest or the brain, which could result in death to the animal.

"We have over 30 consultants -- zoo veterinarians and medical doctors" who step in to help with zoo animals, Dr. Baker said, including ob-gyn specialists and pediatricians, who have been called in to treat young apes and monkeys.

Another member of Koda's dental surgery team was Pilar Fish, the full-time veterinarian, for the past four years, at the National Aviary on the North Side. Dr. Fish administered the anesthesia.

She's done a lot of surgery and administered anesthesia on all kinds of animals, including birds and fish.

After four years of college and four years of veterinary school, she studied an additional five years to become a zoo veterinarian. That included internships and residencies at 20 different zoos, including Pittsburgh's.

There are 29 veterinary schools in the United States, and about half of those have courses that can start students down the track to becoming zoo veterinarians.

"In zoo medicine you are treating everything from snails to elephants," Dr. Fish said. "You have to mix drugs because what you need for a specific animal does not exist."

When a tiny bird breaks its leg, there are no ready-made splints to repair the bone "so you take splints designed for people" and scale them down. Zoo vets have been known to use paper clips and paste and tape to make what they need for small animals.

Advances in radiology -- including the invention of portable units that can be taken into the zoo habitats of large animals -- have helped to diagnose problems. Advances and improvements in anesthesia have made it safer to treat zoo animals that usually have to be sedated to be treated.

"The drugs we have now are much kinder to the animals. They go to sleep faster and they wake up faster," Dr. Baker said. Large animals, especially elephants and big cats, have decreased lung function when they are lying motionless on their side for hours on end.

"There is always a risk" with anesthesia and surgery, Dr. Baker noted, "because you don't know exactly how they will react the first time."

Both radiology and anesthesiology advances get partial credit for the Aug. 8 birth of three Siberian tiger cubs.

When the pairing of Yorgi and Toma produced no tiger cubs, the Pittsburgh zoo started testing.

The male, Yorgi, was put through a battery of tests while under anesthesia. Tests on his semen indicated he was fertile but radiology tests indicated he had a back problem that was causing pain.

Zoo keepers didn't know the big tiger was hurting. Wild animals generally mask symptoms of pain, vets interviewed for this story agreed, because to show pain or weakness in the wild could mean death to the animal.

"After four to six months on painkillers, Yorgi was breeding and we have cubs," Dr. Baker noted.

A local flamingo couldn't find its food because it was blinded by cataracts.

"I am not an eye specialist. I couldn't operate," Dr. Fish said. "An eye surgeon from a local hospital operated on the flamingo and that bird is alive five years later."

Zoo veterinarians, several years ago, "snuck a cheetah into a human hospital" for a brain scan, said Dr. Baker, who did not name the city or hospital.

Zoos are now acquiring more diagnostic and surgical equipment thanks to financial donors and "human" doctors who donate older equipment to zoos when they upgrade to newer equipment.

"We know our limitations," said Dr. Hilsenroth, of the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians. "There is still a lot of work to be done.

"One of the big issues is reproduction and contraception. Animals that are threatened and endangered need to reproduce. It would be helpful, and would improve the gene pool, if we could collect sperm and eggs from wild animals instead of capturing wild animals and bringing them into zoos."

Contraception would be helpful for species of zoo animals that are not needed for breeding and are happiest when living in groups of their own kind.

Government submits plan to Centre on stray wild animals

Government submits plan to Centre on stray wild animals

Jammu, Jan 22: Replying calling attention notice of Ali Muhammad Sagar and Muhammad Yaseen Shah, Minister for Forests and Environment Qazi Muhammad Afzal stated in Legislative Assembly Monday that to deal with the problem of straying of wild animals into habitations on long term basis, a comprehensive proposal for strengthening the department in terms of mobility, communication, equipment, trapping/translocation facilities, rescue centers, training, compensation package, honorarium to eco-development communities and awareness raising has been prepared and submitted to Government of India.
There have been certain cases where black bears have surfaced in the outskirts of Srinagar along Zabarwan hills (like Brain, Nishat, Dara of Sonwar constituency) and in Ganderbal outskirts from October to December. Besides, there have been other instances where wild animals like black bear and leopard have surfaced in rural habitations adjoining the forests in Kashmir as well as in Jammu regions. There have been some deaths and injuries also in the rural areas due to attacks by wild animals like black bear and leopard.
In Sonwar constituency, two deaths and eight injuries have been caused due to such attacks in 2006.
The reasons for increase in the cases of attacks by wild animals like black bear and leopard are shrinking habitats for the wild animals, spread of human settlements, decimation of forest cover, decrease in population of herbivores (prey base) in the forest areas in case of leopard, and increase in Horticulture plantations particularly apple and walnut in areas adjacent to forests in case of black bear. Also due to complete ban on hunting and fur trade in the State since 1997, these wild animals have been afforded better protection than in the past. Though no census of leopard or black bear has been conducted, their frequent sightings and the incidents of man-animal conflicts indicate that their population might be on the increase.
The department of Wildlife Protection makes whatever efforts are possible within its resources to tackle the situations that arise when wild animals are surfaced in habitations. In most cases, animals are flushed out and offered safe passage back to the forest. The Department also makes efforts to tranquilize or trap the animal when it is required or feasible to do so. In a situation when the wild animal turns to be a man-eater, permission for its elimination is also given.
Besides the above, the department conducts awareness drive through radio, TV, newspapers and handouts to educate local people about certain do’s and don’ts to prevent man-animal conflicts. The people are also educated about necessary precautionary measures for safety to be followed in such situations. It is noteworthy that the Department of Wildlife Protection does not have its presence through out the state. Its presence is usually in protected areas viz. Wildlife Sanctuaries, National Parks and Conservation Reserves. To deal with situations of man-animal conflicts in all areas, whether declared to be protected areas or not, coordination between Forest (Territorial), Wildlife Department, Forest Protection Force, District Administration and police is being strengthened.
In case of causalities resulting from man-animal conflicts, the department provides compensation to the victims.

Leopard hangs from a tree for hours in Himachal

India
India
Leopard hangs from a tree for hours in Himachal
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Saturday, January 20, 2007

A prowling leopard was caught in a trap and remained hanging from a tree for hours before being rescued by wildlife officials.

Farmers in Majroo village, near Nalagarh town, some 120 km from here, attached a crude device to a tree to capture crop-destroying wild boars at the edge of their fields.

The loop was made from a discarded metallic scooter wire. Early Friday the farmers found a roaring leopard instead of a wild boar hanging from the tree.

Shankar Lal, a farmer, informed wildlife officials, who soon arrived with a veterinary doctor. The big cat was first tranquillised, treated on his bleeding leg and then caged.

The animal was safely transported to the Gopalpur zoo in Kangra Valley late Friday.

'The leopard is about two years old and weighs 60 kg,' said R.S. Kanwar, a senior wildlife official, who among others rescued the animal.

Bounty for killer leopard

Vol XXIX NO. 302 Tuesday 16th January 2007

Bounty for 'killer' leopard

SRINAGAR: Authorities in Indian administered Kashmir yesterday offered a reward of 10,000 rupees (BD85.31) to anyone helping catch a leopard thought to have mauled to death three children in 10 days.

Hundreds of villagers protested after a leopard dragged an 8-year-old girl from her house in Chatragul, a forested area in south Kashmir. Her mangled body and blood-soaked clothes were found among pine trees, police said. Two other children were killed in the area earlier this month by what officials say is likely the same animal. Over a dozen people have been killed in the past 12 months by wild animals.

Far East Leopards

Administration orders killing of leopard in Anantnag

Administration orders killing of leopard in Anantnag

Rashid Ahmad

Srinagar, January 14, 2007

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Jan 12: Leopard kills 7-year old girl in Anantnag »


The administration in southern Anantnag district has ordered the killing of a leopard involved in the killing of three girls in the hilly region of Achabal.

Seven professional hunters of the area and police have been asked to look for the leopard and kill her.

"We have issued ammunition (12-bore cartridges) to seven professional hunters who have licensed guns to work along with police to spot and kill the leopard," Abdul Rasheed Dar, additional deputy commissioner told the Hindustan Times.

The leopard has caused scare in the area by killing three girls in the past five days. The department of Wild-Life has warned the residents of over a dozen villages over a radius of 15 km around Panchalthan hills of leopard attacks and has asked them to take extra-care while moving out of their houses.

The warning came in a radio broadcast by the chief warden Farooq Geelani. The residents have been asked to move out of their houses in groups and let not their children venture out in odd hours.

The administration woke up to the threat by the wild animals after a leopard killed and took away the body of a 10-year old girl Rayeesa daughter of Ghulam Hassan Mir of Halkha near Shangus on Saturday.

This was the third such incident in the area in the past five days. Earlier a leopard swooped on Panchalthan village and killed a 7-year old girl Beauty Jan. A 10-year old boy was killed by a leopard at Utrusoo village in the same area on Wednesday.

The authorities believe that all the three killings have been carried out by the same leopard.

Hundreds of residents today held protest demonstrations against government’s inaction and its failure to protect them form wild animals. The residents said that they could have killed the leopard the very first day it appeared in the residential area but did not due to fear of police action against them.

“We know what police did in Tral, last month, where residents had killed a black bear”, said the agitated residents. Police arrested four persons and booked them for killing a black bear.

The black bear had attacked and injured a 70-year old resident—Abdul Gani Rather—of Shariefabad village, who later died in the hospital. Incidentally, one of the four persons booked for killing the black bear included the son of the slain resident.

There had been number of incidents of wild bears appearing in populated areas in many parts of Kupwara, Baramullah, Anantnag and Pulwama in the past three months. As many as eight persons including a minor child have been killed and over 30 wounded in the attacks by them on residents.

Wildlife officials say that there had been a substantial increase in wild animal population in Jammu and Kashmir as poaching and hunting has stopped in Kashmir with the rise of terrorism.

They say that the human interference in the wild animal habitat has also increased and many forested areas have been denuded, which force the wild animals to stray into villages.

They say that many areas, where wild animal usually inhabit are covered under snow and these animals come down to residential areas in search of food.

Nose to the ground