FreeMe’s wild spring babies

Spring has sprung at the Paulshof-based rescue centre, with babies in almost every enclosure. The first of the orphaned litters which FreeMe is rehabilitating is the three baby small-spotted genets. According to Nicci Wright, senior animal manager at FreeMe, the genets were cut out of their mother’s womb by a farmer after his workers beat their mother to death.

Wright said small-spotted genets were very common around Johannesburg, but are rarely seen because they live in trees and are nocturnal.

“They’re very useful animals,” Wright said.

“They eat birds and rodents, so they keep the feral pigeon and rat population down.”

The second set of orphans at FreeMe are two female caracal kittens. Wright said the kittens were rescued from the Midlands where a farmer had shot their mother. Realising the dead caracal was pregnant, the farmer also cut her three kittens out of her womb, two females and a male.

Wright said the farmer had intended to keep them as pets but a local vet persuaded him to give them up and called FreeMe to rescue them. Unfortunately the male caracal kitten did not survive as he was born with a digestive disorder.

The third of FreeMe’s wild babies are a litter of Cape fox pups whose mother was shot by a farmer in Bloemfontein. A neighbouring farmer heard the pups crying in a burrow and rescued them.

All the orphaned animals are being nursed to health, and when they are old enough they will be released into the wild.

FreeMe’s newest avian resident is a majestic secretary bird. Wright said when FreeMe was contacted to rescue the bird by a vet in Randfontein, he asked them to please pick up a falcon, little did he know the bird was actually one of South Africa’s rarest birds.

Wright explained the secretary bird has heavy metal poisoning and is on long-term treatment. As soon as the bird has been healed, it will be released back into the wild.