Forest Voices of India

Photo 49692836 / Spotted Deer © Volodymyr Byrdyak | Dreamstime.com

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Photo 49692836 / Spotted Deer © Volodymyr Byrdyak | Dreamstime.com
The photo is of another spotted deer.
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Early in July, a young male spotted deer was rushed to the WRRC (Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre) in Karnataka, in south India.

The young deer arrived in very bad shape, having been attacked by dogs. He had been rescued by kind people who found him near the city of Doddaballapur, an industrial city just north of Bangalore. Seeing that he was badly hurt, they knew he needed to go to the WRRC to receive urgent care.

When he arrived, suffering from many bite wounds, he was treated under general anesthesia. However, he experienced huge blood loss caused by the wounds, and this slowed down his recovery from the anesthesia.

It was only due to the skill of Dr. Roopa Satish and her assistants that they were able to save him.

They gave him intravenous fluids and other emergency medications to stabilize and revive him. Unfortunately, all this happened at a time when the weather was cooler than normal and there had been a lot of continuous rain. This cool spell reduced the body temperature of the deer, and he was in grave danger of hyperthermia. They placed an infrared lamp close by to raise his body temperature.

Fortunately, after sundown, after about four hours, he began to regain consciousness, but he was still too weak to stand up. They were greatly relieved though to see that he was awake.

Dr. Roopa and his caregivers changed his position and made him comfortable for the night.

Night near the forest

The WRRC Rehabilitation Centre is located in a very beautiful wild forest called the Bannergatta Forest. It’s quite a large center with very sturdy enclosures, and the whole area is enclosed too, so there is no danger from forest wildlife that wander by during the night. That night was no exception. The deer, who was a newcomer, had attracted the attention of wild leopards who had walked around not far from his enclosure. However, they couldn’t get too close, and the deer remained unaware of them. The leopards left their footprints in the earth that could be seen in the morning.

During the night, the young deer had started to feel much better – well enough to get up, walk around, munch on some green grass, and drink loads of water. Noticing all this in the morning, Dr. Roopa and her assistants were happy. For the first time, they were able to feel that he would survive and be okay.

Dr. Roopa writes, “After a week today, he is much stronger, hates his injections and resists any antiseptic sprays we try to spray on his wounds. He is a very chill and calm deer unlike a wild one.”

The deer had been taken out of the wild

Normally a wild deer would be highly nervous and stressed by the presence of humans. “But,” Dr. Roopa writes, “this fellow may have been handreared by humans, losing his instinctual fear of humans and dogs and so was not alarmed by dogs which chased and bit him viciously.” Being raised in captivity had caused his life to get off to a really bad start.

Something had gone terribly wrong at the beginning of this young deer’s life.

It’s not certain exactly what caused this young deer to be in captivity, but what sometimes happens with young fawns is that people come across them where they have been left to wait for their mother who will return to feed them. Not knowing that it is normal for the fawn to be alone for a few hours, people try to “rescue” them. The poor fawns end up being held for some time in captivity – where they cannot develop the skills they need for life in the wild. Then they are subject to hazards, like dog attacks.

Expected to be okay

“Now,” Dr. Roopa explains, “we will have to slowly make him wild and shy again by not interacting with him, keeping him apart from humans, and giving him his complete privacy. Slowly over a long period of time he should get the message that he is a wild creature unlike humans and that he cannot approach or trust humans or any other animal. This could take from six months to up to two years. Hopefully, we we will be successful in rehabilitating him back in the wild where all wild animals belong.”

Thank goodness, the deer was brought to the WRRC, where he can receive appropriate care.

If only the first people who came across him when he was found initially had known in the beginning to call and seek assistance from the WRRC, his story might have had a much happier start. They could have left him where he was, waiting for his mother, as was normal.

However, thanks to the expert care that he will receive now, he stands a good chance to recover completely, to be able to gain all the skills he’ll need to live back out in the forest.

Saving many thousands

Whatever country you live in, if you ever come across a very young deer, please contact a licensed wildlife center before trying to help. In many cases, a young fawn is just waiting for his mother and may not need help at all.

Because of their extensive expertise and training, Dr. Roopa and all the caregivers at the WRRC are able to save the lives of many thousands of injured wild creatures.

The WRRC is an amazing place of healing for wild animals.

Assuming all goes well, the young deer will, when he is ready and equipped with good survival skills, be released to live a life of freedom, among the trees, birds, and streams, at peace in the beauty of Bannergatta Forest.

How you can help

If you’d like to help give a young deer or another animal a new chance at life, please look for the donate button, above on the upper right! Thank you!

It was after midnight, on November 14 of last year, when Anand and Kiran gently picked up the first star tortoise to weigh her.

After her long ordeal of so much travel, she looked dazed and not too well. Anand Nair, the Supervisor of the WRRC Centre, and Kiran, the night caregiver, took great care while moving her and treating her.

Catching a poacher

Earlier that evening, the police, acting on a tip, had been waiting at the bus station in one of the most congested parts of the city of Bangalore, in south India. Tipped off, they were waiting for a poacher and caught him red-handed with his live cargo at the bus station as he got off the bus from the neighboring state, Tamil Nadu. While some of the police officers arrested the poacher and led him away, the other officers got on to a bus, carrying the bags of tortoises and arrived at the WRRC Centre (Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre) well after midnight. They got the tortoises as quickly as they could to the WRRC, but it was a long day for the officers – and even longer for the tortoises.

No wonder the first tortoise and all the others to follow were feeling dazed and disoriented. They’d been packed tightly into baggage without enough air or space, and no water. There were several hundred of them.

Sadly, over the next week, despite the best efforts of the caregivers at WRRC, a few of the tortoises died, unable to recover from the ordeal they had been through.

A long work-day

However, with the excellent care they received, all 531 of the remaining tortoises did fully recover. That November night, into the dawn hours, Anand and Kiran weighed each tortoise, recorded their weight, cleaned them off carefully, and rehydrated them. All this took nearly three hours.

Most of the tortoises weighed between 40 to 500 grams (from around one ounce – to just over one pound). Because it was November and quite cool for the stressed tortoises, heaters and heating pads were placed all around them to keep them warm through the rest of the night.

Like all cold-blooded animals, they need to keep warm when the weather is cold. After the physical examination, they were shifted to a large enclosure with feed like freshly grated vegetables: carrot, beetroot, sweet potato, cucumber, and greens like coriander. Wild grasses were also added to improve the variety.

Wildlife Protection in India

The poor, rural farmers who had caught the tortoises had been paid just ten rupees (13 U.S. cents) by the poacher for each tortoise.

The worldwide wildlife trade is a major catastrophe for the earth’s wildlife. Most captured wildlife do not survive, and the few that do are then sold illegally, often into the pet trade. Kept confined in unsuitable conditions, they will have lost their wild homes and may never again know the joy of living in the wild.

Fortunately, India, one of the richest countries on earth in terms of biodiversity, also has very enlightened wildlife laws, especially the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. It is illegal to capture wildlife.

Soon, on December 13, many of the 531 rescued tortoises had bounced back and were feeling healthy and well again. They were ready for release thanks to the expert care and the healthy diet provided by the WRRC; the others would be released a few weeks later, just as soon as they were ready.

Return to the deep forest

That December morning, Dr. Roopa Satish, Chief Veterinarian and licensed wildlife rehabilitator, took several of them deep into the forest to an ideal site, where there was water available, far enough into the forest to be at a great distance from any human activity. There, with great care, she picked up each tortoise and then set him or her down among the tall grass at the foot of trees. She chose each spot very carefully. Each tortoise hesitated a moment, then picked up his feet and slowly made his way off into the woods. Free at last, enjoying breathing the fresh air, each tortoise made her way into the brush where she could find native plants and insects to eat, smell the fresh breeze, and begin her life anew, wild, and free again.

A couple of weeks later, a second release took place for the remaining tortoises – hundreds of lives saved – each one an individual living being.

Thanks to the dedicated police work and to the experienced professional care they received at the WRRC Centre, the tortoises are back home in the wild again, with the rest of their lives ahead of them. They can enjoy strolling along on the grass, in the shade or in the sunlight, just as nature intended.

And thank you, as well, for your very kind support for the forest animals of India!

Photo Credit:

Davidvraju
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

The photo at the top is of a different tortoise, not one of the WRRC tortoises.

The video shows the actual WRRC tortoises.