Sky Vets Report for February - May 2019

Published on the 15th of June, 2019

During February - May 2019 the SWT/KWS Sky Vet program was called to handle 34 wildlife cases including 1 case where 11 rhinos were vaccinated. Most of these cases were supported by the SWT helicopter as well as one outsourced aircraft to help with elephant darting operations as well as search and monitoring operations.

26 of these cases attended to involved elephants and 7 involved rhinos. Of the 26 elephant cases, 5 involved arrow wounds, 1 was a bullet wound case, 3 were snaring cases, 5 spear cases, 3 Human Wildlife Conflict cases, 7 cases due to natural causes and 2 rescues.

62% of the cases were successful with 9% taken to an orphanage and 6% given a poor prognosis. Without rapid veterinary response, the majority of these cases would have died from their injuries.