Diary Entry - Day 32

This morning was rather dramatic. Yesterday evening, TJ, the oldest male leopard in the reserve, was found injured. After being guarded from advances by a hyena and the wild dogs, he was darted and brought to the clinic at AfriCat this morning, where a vet had come in for him.

TJ had been fighting with a younger male, Mafana, who is in his prime and very big and strong, with a huge territory. They have been known to fight before, but never this badly.

TJ has deep puncture wounds on his head and rear. After all of these were washed out and disinfected, he was given antibiotics and laid out in a small, sheltered enclosure to come around. He will be very closely monitored for the next few days.

Whilst TJ was in the clinic, the older children from Perivoli, the on-site school, came to have a look, as did the guides and some of the other staff. This is a really good opporunity to see a leopard up close, and to help understand the work AfriCat does.

Here are a few pictures of me and the others with TJ in the clinic; these were taken once most of the madness had passed, and we were just flushing out his wounds.

I'm not actually admiring TJ's impressive teeth here, I'm looking at the holes in the back of his neck

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