India doesn’t disappoint and Luke is in the zone. Today, Susie, an Aussie on a spiritual holiday, turned up at the shelter and told Luke about an injured donkey she saw at the other side of the town. It all went really quickly. Susie and Luke jumped in a tuk tuk while Adam grabbed another one to film them whizzing across town to find the donkey. Nathan and I scrambled the kit together, packed our car and tried to catch up with them. It took us quite a while to navigate through the traffic pandemonium of tuk tuks, cows and people, but eventually I saw Adam. He was hanging off the side of a tuk tuk with one hand, while in the other hand holding the huge Sony 700 HD camera pointing it at the other three-wheeler. The next minute he was hanging outside Susie and Luke’s tuk tuk filming them having a chat while weaving through the Indian traffic. Adam was in and out of tuk tuks, stopping and directing traffic while shooting at the same time. He was on fire and loving it! No doubt, the footage is going to be great....Continue reading
Through evolution animal life has become diverse and a magnificent wonder of the world; the many millions of different species startle and amaze me. On this series so far I have been fondled by baboons in the African scrub, stroked a leopard, been scared witless by a hyena, and witnessed a leatherback turtle nesting in the middle of the night. And today we filmed painted storks nesting and feeding in a small Indian village, which was wonderful to behold. They are marvelous birds; so silky smooth in their flying style. Watching them soar high above I was also reminded of the theory of how birds have evolved from dinosaurs and how wonderful the whole process of life is....Continue reading
I had a big debate with Bruce about whether a painted stork could count as my third duck. On balance it has a much bigger beak and much longer legs but I reckon as far as Indian equivalents go; it’s the best I’m going to get on this adventure....Continue reading
In my previous blog I talked about wonderful creatures and today I spotted another: Ants! Whilst waiting for Luke to recover from his Delhi belly upstairs in the hotel there was a swarm of them devouring a butterfly. They were crawling all over it and I think attempting to carry it back to their hill. I was hoping Luke would swoop down and save the poor thing, but sadly it was already dead…...Continue reading
Dr Nanderandi smiled as he casually talked me through the flank bitch spay technique today – 7 minutes later he lay down his instruments. Well, 7 minutes and 17 seconds to be precise but who’s counting 17 seconds. For those at all interested the anaesthetic was 2mg/kg xylazine IM, 0.02mg/kg atropine s/c then 5minutes later one handed catheterisation 10m/kg ketamine I/v and on a drip. No tops up needed (except for my slow coach 16minute effort which needed an extra jab) but these are a 50:50mix of 20mg/ml xylazine and 100mg/ml ketamine and given at 0.5ml/10kg. Every animal gets meloxicam and la antibiotic – one suture of silk horizontal mattress and this is removed after 5 days. They look perfect. So today I had the master class in spaying and I have loved it. This morning was an epic removal of a buffalo horn with a fracture and then this afternoon spaying. Apparently the vet working with us tomorrow is even faster. I’m out of my league with these guys....Continue reading
Lots of GVs today, Marc and I paid a courtesy visit to the local chief of police armed with a tin of shortbread biscuits which went down well; so whilst permissions for town shooting were cleared at a local level, unfortunately the secret police patrolling outside the Ashram (due to high security alert from terrorist bomb threats) had other ideas so we had to cut that a bit short. Driving the truck through the town was an experience to say the least! There are no rules other than honk your horn and go for gold! Marc is immensely pleased with himself because the policeman told him how much he liked his beard and that he looked like a Hero (to my villain of course)....Continue reading
Luke today renamed me Navender. Brilliant, because calling me Bruce in front of all and sundry isn’t confusing enough. Oh well… In retaliation I’ve renamed him Problem Child, which in a way is also a compliment because he is like a big friendly child who is going around the world solving animal problems… or something like that…...Continue reading
Bruce got upset today because I called him Navender. It’s a great name and Bruce Navender has a ring to it. I think he’s secretly getting into the whole new identity thing....Continue reading
Epic couple of days. Ten-hour journey yesterday to the jungle. It’s really great to see Nigel (who runs the shelter) and the team again – wonderful to revisit a charity I worked at 3 years ago and very emotional to see some of the animals I rescued on my first visit. Nigel is an inspiration and it’s a privilege to be working with him again....Continue reading
