Jakarta Globe – AFP, December 12, 2013
Manila. Giraffes and zebras were badly injured and left with almost no food when a deadly typhoon struck a Philippine island reserve for African wildlife, an international animal welfare group said Wednesday.
Manila. Giraffes and zebras were badly injured and left with almost no food when a deadly typhoon struck a Philippine island reserve for African wildlife, an international animal welfare group said Wednesday.
Super Typhoon
Haiyan felled many trees at the reserve when it raked across the central
islands nearly five weeks ago, injuring some of its animals, said Birgit Leber
of Vienna-based Four Paws International.
“Eight or
nine giraffes out of 21 need medical treatment,” Leber, a member of a Four Paws
team who had gone on a relief mission to Calauit earlier this month told AFP by
telephone.
“Two or
three zebras have not been eating very well, and one was seen walking
strangely,” she said.
The
isolated 3,760-hectare island on the South China Sea was turned into a wildlife
reserve by the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1976.
The current
government has continued to promote the island to tourists as offering a
glimpse of Africa in a remarkable tropical setting.
Two of the
reserve’s giraffes had open wounds above their front legs that were probably
caused by falling trees, said Leber, an assistant to Four Paws’ director of
project development.
Four Paws
learnt the injured animals had not gotten any medical attention at all, and it
plans to send a second mission to Calauit in the next few days to treat them,
Leber told AFP by telephone.
“The
[Calauit] animal hospital, sad to say, is broken and there is no medical
equipment to treat the animals,” said Leber.
The first
Four Paws team did not see the other animals, but observed that much of the
food source of the giraffes had been destroyed.
“Most of
the trees fell down. Giraffes eat from trees, they do not eat from the ground,
so there is nothing left for them to eat,” Leber said.
Four Paws
brought six tons of emergency food rations to the island, good for three
months, so its giraffes would not starve, she added.
The
reserve’s director, Froilan Sariego, could not be reached by telephone by AFP
on Wednesday.
Calauit was
originally stocked with 104 heads of giraffe, zebra, impala, waterbuck,
gazelle, eland, topi and bushbuck acquired from Kenya, along with native wild
mammals, according to its official website.
When AFP
visited the reserve, located about 300 kilometres (180 miles) southwest of
Manila, two years ago, it had just over 100 African animals, about the same as
the original stock.
Agence France-Presse
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