Fence-rolling is one of the most important and rewarding activities here at PAWS. Thirty years ago when the farmers departed their lands and the conservationists moved in, almost everything was abandoned where it lay. This included all manner of rusting equipment but most deadly was the miles and miles of entangled, galvanised steel wire fences.
Today, this means the volunteers spend some of our mornings clearing and rolling up as much wire as possible, not as easy a job as it sounds.
The reason is that many of the animals here, particularly the antelopes, scent-mark trees and posts with glands on their foreheads, and when they stumble upon one of these fences, often become inextricably ensnared. The photos below show one Kudu skull, found in the bush and now displayed at PAWS.
God knows how long this poor animal struggled, and hopefully a predator finished him off before he suffered a long hot, and starving death. Man-made suffering is all too common here, but at least motivation is not in short supply.Henry
No comments:
Post a Comment