The Bhutanese Leading the way.
On 12 April the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (WRRC) under Wildlife Conservation Division (WCD) of Department of Forests and Park Services, rescued three wild animals in a single day. The rescued wild animals included a calf of Himalayan serow, a fawn of a Sambar deer and another fawn of a barking deer.
According to the gewog forestry extension officer Kinley Dorji, an abandoned female calf of a Himalayan serow, (Capricornis sumatraensis) was found on the highway with its mother nowhere in sight by one trucker called Karma.
The unattended serow calf was spotted at Watsa area under Chapcha gewog some 50 kilometers from Tsimasham town along Thimphu–Phuentsholing highway.
He said that it was first sighted by a DCM truck driver travelling along the highway to Phuentsholing and driver picked up the calf and handed over the helpless calf to Chapcha gewog’s forestry extension office.
The gewog extension officer Kinley Dorji over the phone said that he immediately informed the Wildlife Rescue and Animal Health Section at Taba in Thimphu for help. However, until the officials from the centre could get there to collect the calf, Kinley Dorji kept the calf in an empty storeroom. He fed it with bottled imported milk for one night.
On the next morning, and a day after the centre received the report, the rescue team rushed to Chukha to retrieve the calf and translocate it to the rehabilitation enclosure at Taba. The forest extension official said that when he inspected the calf he found that it did not suffer from any injuries or from the stress of human-handling.
“It was feeding well,” said Kinley Dorji. “It even had the good appetite for another bottle of Amul Kool (bottled and sweetened-milk).”
Officials suspected that the mother of the rescued calf was killed by some other predators. This is because, officials say that it is unlikely for mammals to abandon their calves.This calf was only approximately five to six days old.
The rescue team said the calf after it was brought to Thimphu is undergoing rehabilitation at Motithang in upper Thimphu.
On the morning of the same day at around 5:30 am, the rescue team was able to rescue a fawn of a Sambar deer. The fawn according to the report was found being chased by a pack of stray dogs at Langjophakha in Thimphu.
However, the fawn was later reunited with her mother who was waiting and searching frantically for the lost fawn. The mother followed the alarm call of the fawn and was able to reunite.
But before they could call it a day, the rescue team received another call asking them to rescue a Barking-deer fawn. The caller said that the fawn was rescued from the ridge above Chuzom (the river confluence between Thimphu and Paro).
A caretaker of a private land is said to have saved the fawn from a pack of hungry dogs. The fawn is currently also at the rehab enclosure at Taba.
