The Brave Little Orphan
This is the story behind our newest member of the Brenton Peninsula Bushbuck Family...
On the morning of the 12th of October 2017, a doe gave birth to a seemingly healthy fawn. She must have fallen pregnant just before Knysna fires of 7 June 2017 as bushbuck have a gestation period (the duration of the pregnancy) of about 6 months.
Unfortunately the young doe left the fawn umbilical cord and all right where she gave birth, now there may be various reasons for this, it could have to do with the recent stress the bushbuck have been going through including a shortage of food, despite the green appearance, most of the plants growing are inedible to the bushbuck, like the Bracken Fern. The truth is we will never really know.
Day one went by and mom didn’t return, the same thing happened day two and by day three a very Weak, dehydrated and frightened little fawn still walking around with its afterbirth, tried to drink from short tempered bushbuck rams. By day 4 the fawn was so weak it was stumbling around, and in the meantime the birthing foe was nowhere to be seen.
This is when local community members decided to act, no bigger than s small dog and skin &
bones, the little one was taken "in" by loving locals. Allen van Zuydam and his family have lived in the Brenton area for more than 27 years and know the bushbuck in the area well.
Allen gave the little fawn a special mixture as prescribed by experts and within a couple of days the little one started to show improvement.
The loving caretakers in an effort to be responsible towards the fawn wanted to get him back to his natural habitat as soon as possible so Allen made him a special enclosure, just tall enough for him not to jump over but short enough so that other bushbuck in the area could climb over to visit. Amazingly the little one was frequently visited by curious members of the Brenton bushbuck family.
To see the enclosure follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJDza6Q6buA
In the mean time, Allen and the other locals kept their contact to a minimum and within a week he was big enough to climb over the fence of his little enclosure and start browsing about. He has been seen with different bushbuck in the area, following them around mimicking what they are doing just like a fawn would follow a foe. He is looking healthy despite "Local Authorities" wanting to take him away out of his natural habitat.
There is one exception, despite the little fawn being shy of humans, like they should be, every afternoon the little one comes and looks for a little more milk (as he would still be drinking from his mother) and he trusts only one person, Allan his adoptive Mommy-Daddy.
Follow the link below to see Allen feeding the little fawn:
So just for fun we here at the Knysna Wildlife Project is having a vote on choosing a name for him, follow the link below to vote:
(Voting Closes 1 November 2017)
Follow Us on Facebook as we will keep you updated on his progress: https://www.facebook.com/KnysnaWP/
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