THE Centre for Rehabilitation of Wildlife, known as CROW, is a non-profit organisation focusing on the welfare of indigenous wildlife.
Established in 1980, Crow has been involved in rescuing, rehabilitating and releasing indigenous animals from all over KwaZulu-Natal for 34 years. Crow receives no government funding but survives with donations of money, food and other in-kind items from the public. Over the past 34 years, Crow has successfully rescued, rehabilitated and released thousands of sick, injured and orphaned animals back into the wild.
CROW is currently KZN’s only registered wildlife rehabilitation centre open to all indigenous wildlife. Amongst its current patients are 14 baby baboons that were brought in from as far afield as Pongola, Drakensberg and even the Eastern Cape. Baboons, Vervet monkeys and bush babies are all rehabilitated at CROW. When orphaned baby baboons first arrive at CROW, they are hand-reared by a human surrogate mother for three to eight months before being integrated with other baboons at the centre.
CROW’s baboon rehabilitation project is vital as it is currently the only chance for these animals to be rescued, rehabilitated and reintroduced into the wild in KZN. It takes CROW anything from three to five years to rehabilitate and re-release a troop of baboons into the wild. On 7 November last year, CROW successful released its latest troop of baboons back into the wild. Following this release, CROW are now working on upgrading their main baboon enclosure ready for their growing troop of baby baboons. The baboon enclosure upgrade is a three-phase project with three adjacent enclosures each needing to be upgraded. The first enclosure upgrade is complete and will soon be able to accommodate the centre’s 14 baby baboons. However, they will soon outgrow this one enclosure, so it is crucial the organisation secures the funds needed to complete the entire project soon.
For the upgrade to be successful, CROW is appealing to the public to help it raise funds. To date, they have raised R12, 000 out of the R130, 000 needed for the project, with two enclosures left to upgrade.
CROW is situated at Coedmore Avenue, Yellowwood Park. Call them 031-462-1127.
