Nevada veterinarian returns from Africa after human-animal conservation practice

Nevada Daily Mail

After working in Kenya in 1999 helping with eco-tourism, Wendy Engeman knew she wanted to go back to Africa, if she ever had the time.

Last month, she returned from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, after a 21-day stay where she helped repair broken vulture wings, tended to donkeys that had been attacked by hyenas, and surveyed cattle for tuberculosis with the Victoria Falls Trust. She also worked to preserve rhinoceros.

"The town's wildlife just comes right through, so it is totally normal to drive down the road at night and see an elephant crossing," Engeman said. "We also worked with human-animal conflict, so we tried to work with them to adapt to that without endangering the animal at the same time."

Submitted photo Dr. Wendy Engeman and a member of the Travers Family, which owns and manages the property, cut the rhinoceros' horn down in an attempt to keep it from being poached.

Engeman, a veterinarian at the Nevada Veterinarian Clinic, said she enjoyed her time on her first trip and wanted to give back and help the conservation efforts in Africa. She had simple goals: Do what she could toward conservation efforts and see what programs are needed. She said she met her goals, and was happy with what she was able to do.

She made a note to see the world the way the Zimbabwe community saw life.

"I think it's a very complex problem, and it's hard for us to understand here in the western world," Engeman said. "We think 'Why would anyone want to kill that lion?' Well, when that lion is eating all my cattle every night, and I depend on that meat and milk from the cattle, it's hard to say, 'Well don't kill the lion because you want the cattle. They're equally important.' Finding a way to get the two to work together can be difficult."

Engeman said several rhinoceros were poached during her three-week stay. Rhinos are poached for their horns, said to have traditional medicinal purposes. Engeman said the animals are being poached faster than the species can be replaced.

Rhinos have trouble creating offspring quickly enough to replace the poached animals because they don't breed quickly, creating a shrinking rhinoceros population among all species.

"The place I actually went to, to de-horn rhinos -- to try and keep them from being poached, that's all they want from them, the horn," Engeman said. "(The private land owner) had three rhinos killed, even though they didn't have horns. Because of that, they weren't able to have another rhino calf. They just didn't breed again for six years, and then their gestation period is long, too. It's a big deal when you kill the breeding stock -- it's awful."

"The black rhino are still there, but their numbers are very low," she said. "The people who live there see a very bleak future for them which is very sad."

Engeman said she has always had an interest in wildlife and conservation medicine. She said people she knew from her previous trip to Kenya introduced her to the Victoria Falls Trust.

"Africa is a special place," she said about wanting to go for a second trip. "It's hard to explain until you've been there, but there's a special feeling about it, and living amongst these huge animals, having a symbiotic relationship with them, is fulfilling. (Victoria Falls was) very good to work with; the veterinarian who works with the rhinos is well known for his work," she said.

Engeman said working with rhino's was the highlight of her trip. Working with seven rhinos on private land, she helped de-horn five animals -- three black rhinoceros and two white rhinoceros. She said she helped give anesthesia to the rhinos.

"Anesthesia is very tricky on them," she said. When you're anesthetizing an endangered species, you don't want them to die, obviously. It was intense, but it was cool. I had never been close to that species before."

De-horning the animal helps prevent the rhino from poaching, but Engeman said hornless-rhinos are still killed.

"Maybe they are doing it out of spite, or maybe (poachers) were too far away to see (if rhinos had a horn).

The horn, Engeman said, is like a thumbnail, it grows back. Victoria Falls Trust Volunteers have to cut horns over and over again. The rhinos Engeman worked with had their horns shaved down in 2009.

"I do worry about the long-term consequences (of taking their horns away). You wonder if the horn plays a role in finding a mate, I don't think (Victoria Falls Trust has) seen that the (hornless-) rhinos get picked on by other male rhinos or anything like that," Engeman said. "You don't know the long-term effects of de-horning them, but we don't have long-term to find out, you have to do something now"