Day 2 at Shamwari

Not to worry, don't think we'll be bloggin every day of our time here, but today was pretty cool.  We set out at 5:45 this morning (it was freezing) to meet up with the Shamwari vets.  They had to move a couple of female Cape Buffalo out of the existing herd and move them to meet a new bull, trying to set up a new breeding herd.  Interesting factoid:  a large, disease-free Cape Buffalo bull can cost more than $2M.  Anyway, we located the herd and hung out until the vets arrived.  Their first order of business was to tranquilize the 2 females they selected with their dart gun

Nice shot!

Next step was for the vet (with the help of an able assistant) to check that the cow was not pregnant:

(yes, he does have his whole arm up in there)

Then into the trucks for the ride to meet their new boyfriend:

This afternoon was a bit less glamorous - out with machetes cutting down prickly pear cactuses (cactii?).  They're an invasive plant originally imported by farmers as a supplemental food for their herds during times of drought.  They're spreading too far, and its an uphill battle to keep them under control, but we did what we could.  Nothing picture-worthy - I'm sure you're all disappointed.....