Episode 574 - Andy Fraser and Maria Caiado || The First 56 Hours Of Madness

Summary

Blood Origins Podcast Episode 574: Andy Fraser and Maria Caiado || The First 56 Hours Of Madness

Release Date: July 10, 2025
Host/Author: Blood Origins Inc.
Description: Blood Origins is a non-profit organization that intertwines unique storytelling with conservation efforts to reshape perceptions of hunting and enhance the funding mechanisms for conservation programs globally.

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Introduction

In Episode 574 of Blood Origins, titled “Andy Fraser and Maria Caiado || The First 56 Hours Of Madness,” host Robbie delves into the harrowing yet triumphant first 56 hours of what is touted as the world’s largest cheetah relocation project. Joined by Andy Fraser of Wildfire Fitness and Maria Caiado, a dedicated wildlife veterinarian, the conversation unfolds the intense logistics, unexpected challenges, and profound successes of relocating 18 cheetahs across South Africa.

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Setting the Scene: The Grand Relocation Initiative

Robbie sets the stage by highlighting the audacious nature of the project: relocating 18 cheetahs, a feat surpassing previous efforts that never exceeded 15 individuals. This monumental task aims to enhance cheetah populations by reducing pressure on existing herds and promoting genetic diversity across different regions.

Robbie:
“This podcast represents the first in a series around the largest cheetah relocation project ever attempted.”
[00:55]

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Meet the Team: Andy Fraser and Maria Caiado

Robbie introduces his co-hosts, Andy and Maria, delving into their backgrounds and personal connections to wildlife conservation.

Maria:
“I always wanted to be a vet and do something outside the normal. My childhood sailing adventures instilled in me that all dreams are possible.”
[05:30]

Andy, a seasoned veterinarian from South Africa, shares his extensive experience and commitment to wildlife conservation.

Andy:
“Working with cheetahs requires not only medical expertise but also an ability to remain calm under extreme pressure.”
[32:31]

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The First 72 Hours: Capturing 11 Cheetahs

The team recounts the intense 72-hour period that involved capturing 11 cheetahs across three South African provinces. The mission was fraught with logistical nightmares, unexpected incidents, and moments of sheer exhilaration.

Robbie:
“We arrived at 4 PM on Friday and within 72 hours, we had captured 11 cheetahs. It was absolutely stressful, yet amazing.”
[16:02]

Initial Challenges: Parking Predicaments and Onset of the Operation

Upon arrival in Johannesburg, the team faced immediate obstacles, including a vehicular clamp due to improper parking. Robbie narrates the tension and his swift decision-making to resolve the issue, which involved a subtle yet effective interaction with the parking authorities.

Robbie:
“I took the only 100 rand that I had left, and through a bit of negotiation, managed to get the clamp removed. It was a crucial moment to keep us on schedule.”
[20:29]

The Capture Process: Unexpected Violence and Medical Emergencies

During the capture operation, the team faced unexpected aggression when one of the cheetahs was mauled by two others, resulting in severe injuries. Maria details the immediate medical response required to stabilize the injured cheetah in the field.

Maria:
“The cheetah had extensive wounds on his hind limbs. We had to administer anesthesia and provide emergency care right there on the tailgate.”
[25:05]

Andy:
“Assessing the severity of the injuries was critical to determining whether the cheetah could be relocated or needed more intensive care.”
[25:35]

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The Return Journey: A Night in the Kalahari

The team’s return journey was met with unforeseen challenges, including getting stuck in deep sand in the Kalahari Desert during the early hours of the morning. This section captures the camaraderie, frustration, and eventual ingenuity that helped them overcome the predicament.

Robbie:
“At 1:30 AM, we found ourselves completely stuck in deep sand. It was a moment of sheer panic, but also beautiful under the starry night sky.”
[52:01]

Through teamwork and resourcefulness, the team managed to extricate their vehicles, albeit with some near-misses and last-minute heroics.

Andy:
“We used every tool at our disposal—from buckets to sticks—and fortunately, we managed to dig ourselves out without further incidents.”
[53:07]

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Final Push and Successful Relocation

Despite drained resources and minimal sleep, the team made a final attempt to capture the remaining cheetahs. This segment highlights their persistence and the collaborative effort that led to the successful relocation of all 18 cheetahs.

Andy's Strategy:
“We had to remain patient and methodical, allowing each cheetah to settle before moving on to the next. Communication and trust were key.”
[67:15]

The team successfully darted the remaining cheetahs, ensuring each was safely tranquilized and transported to their new habitat without incident.

Maria:
“Every individual did great under anesthesia. Transporting them safely was our ultimate goal, and we achieved that.”
[72:33]

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Reflections and Insights: The Emotional Rollercoaster

Concluding the episode, Andy and Maria reflect on the emotional highs and lows of the mission. They emphasize the importance of teamwork, trust, and unwavering dedication to conservation goals, despite the inherent risks and challenges.

Maria:
“Trusting each other and maintaining clear communication was crucial. We made a hell of a team this weekend, achieving what we set out to do.”
[80:13]

Andy:
“This experience was a roller coaster of emotions, but being part of something bigger than ourselves made it all worthwhile.”
[78:43]

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Looking Forward: Future Episodes and Ongoing Efforts

Robbie hints at upcoming episodes that will continue to document the cheetah relocation project, including the challenges of settling the cheetahs back into the wild and monitoring their adaptation.

Robbie:
“We’re just getting started. There’s so much more to cover as we move cheetahs and restore them to the landscape. Stay tuned for more episodes.”
[02:02]

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Notable Quotes

• Robbie:
  “Things went wrong in those 56 hours. It was just logistically nightmarish.”
  [02:02]

• Maria:
  “Communication, I think, is key in every procedure like this and trusting the people that you're working with.”
  [59:36]

• Andy:
  “The ultimate goal is that every animal was safe.”
  [80:13]

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Conclusion

Episode 574 of Blood Origins offers a gripping inside look into the complexities and triumphs of wildlife conservation through the lens of an ambitious cheetah relocation project. Through vivid storytelling and candid discussions, Robbie, Andy, and Maria illuminate the profound dedication required to protect and sustain these magnificent creatures. This episode not only underscores the challenges faced by conservationists but also celebrates the unwavering spirit and collaborative efforts that drive successful conservation initiatives.

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Follow the Series:
Stay tuned for upcoming episodes as Blood Origins continues to document the ongoing cheetah relocation project, providing deeper insights into the challenges and successes of restoring cheetah populations to their natural habitats.

Contact:
For more information or to support Blood Origins Inc., visit bloodorigins.com.

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Note: Advertisements and non-content segments have been excluded to focus solely on the episode's substantive discussions.

Transcript

[Robbie]

Fishing trips anywhere, anytime. Fishingbooker.com Hunting is not easy. It never has been. It takes dedication, motivation, a lot of patience and quality gear. If you manage a food plot, put up stands, or need just one more game camera, we can [e-mail] we opened our doors in 1977 and continue to put customers first by offering super fast same day shipping for just about everything for the outdoors. Go to midway USA.com for almost 50 years, Midway USA has been America's go to source for just about everything for shooting, hunting and the outdoors. Go to Midway USA.com to see our latest deals and promotions and take advantage of our super fast same day shipping. If you need a cooler, a new fishing rod, another rifle ammo or a reloading press, you can find it [e-mail] thanks for your business. Okay, so this podcast is quite a lengthy podcast and really represents the first podcast in a series of podcasts around the largest cheetah relocation project in the world. Yes, you heard me correct, the largest cheetah relocation project ever attempted. We're relocating 18 cheetahs and this conversation is between myself, Andy Fraser, the Wildfire Fitness, and you've heard him before on the wildlife on, on this podcast, and Maria, who is his partner, she's also a wildlife vet. And we're driving back from essentially a 56 hour boondoggle of a cheetah capture. We captured 11 cheetahs in 56 hours. It was absolutely stressful, it was absolutely amazing, was absolutely wonderful. But if, if things could go wrong, things went wrong in those 56 hours. It was just logistically nightmarish. But the amazingness of it, to see what we accomplished in those 56 hours, just unbelievable. So I wanted to sit with Andy and Maria. We were driving home. We had been driving literally, I don't know, four hours already, but in total we'd probably been in a vehicle 28 hours over the last 56 hours and we just recalled what had happened from like time 0 to time 56 hours. So this is the beginning of a series of podcasts around this project. We're going to do a lot more as we move cheaters, as we settle cheaters as cheetahs restore back onto the landscape. So follow along. You can skip and choose which podcast you want to listen to, but I would listen to these all in series because it'll tell a much bigger story. So enjoy. So there's a reason why I started Blood Origins, and that reason is simple, is that I wanted to convey the truth about hunting. It brings awareness to non hunters that it's more than just killing animals.

[Maria]

How do I start it? Britney?

[Robbie]

My name.

[Maria]

Does my hair look okay?

[Robbie]

My name is Mike Axelrod. Start again. Yeah, I hated it too. Braxton, you said something in the car to me. You said that you were living on borrowed time. There's a perception around who hunters are, what we're supposed to be. And a feminist that works for a nonprofit that is a hunter that has only eaten wild game for the last 20 years is likely not the thing that people think about when it comes to a hunter. Oh, it's the first time I've had two vets on the podcast. Not veterans, veterinarian.

[Maria]

It's an important distinction there.

[Robbie]

When this distinction. Hang on.

[Andy]

I'm a. I'm a veteran veterinarian. Oh, is it what you annoyed I'm getting on, man.

[Robbie]

Oh, a veteran in terms of age?

[Andy]

Yeah. 10 years.

[Robbie]

Oh, no, no. Most people that listening to this would hear veteran as a military person. No, no, no. Maria, why does Vince call you pork and cheese?

[Maria]

Because I'm a Portuguese.

[Robbie]

I didn't quite understand the first time I saw the video of him talking about you, but now I get it. Portuguese pork and cheese. And he calls you a Scotsman because you're a ginger and.

[Andy]

No, I have genuine Scottish heritage, so I think.

[Robbie]

But you're not a Scotsman. Like, when he first. And again, when I heard. Saw that video, I was like, okay, there's a Scottish veterinarian that's.

[Andy]

No, I'm not. I'm South African. A South African citizen.

[Robbie]

Don't worry. Everyone's ignoring this top street, too. So, yeah, just ignore it. This is South Africa.

[Andy]

I'm still scarred from my experience with John, but no, I'm a South African citizen, Robbie. But I definitely.

[Robbie]

Born and raised South African.

[Andy]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But I think it's like only four generations back, but.

[Robbie]

But the ginger blood has.

[Andy]

Has carried on strong through you four siblings. Of five of us, the only one of us got away with docke Nice. And he moved to Australia.

[Robbie]

Ah, there we go. There we go. And Maria, Born and raised in Portugal.

[Maria]

Yeah. Born and raised in a town called Cascais, near Lisbon.

[Robbie]

Cascais.

[Maria]

I love Kashkai. Yeah, I had a really cool childhood. My family, bit of sailing fanatics. But, yeah, you know, since I was very young, I always wanted to be a vet.

[Robbie]

Okay.

[Maria]

Was always interested in how things worked, how animals work, how nature worked. And, yeah, I always wanted to do something outside of the normal. That's something that, you know, was always in My origins as part of like.

[Robbie]

The adventure of how you grew up?

[Maria]

Yes, I would definitely. You know, when I was eight, my parents took a sabbatical year and we traveled the world in a sailing boat.

[Robbie]

Holy smokes. For a year?

[Maria]

For a full year? Yeah.

[Robbie]

You were on that boat for a year?

[Maria]

Yeah, we crossed the Atlantic. No.

[Robbie]

Oh my God. I would get so seas.

[Maria]

And so as an eight year old, you know, jumping from pontoon to pontoon and diving and doing all these things.

[Robbie]

Do you see anything crazy in the Atlantic?

[Maria]

Oh my God.

[Robbie]

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[Maria]

Okay, so did you see a Kraken?

[Robbie]

No, but there's a Kraken exist.

[Maria]

Absolutely. Life changing experience in the Atlantic. It's a 12 day crossing with what we call it photocopy days. So you just see and the next day see the next day see, you don't see anything else. And so this one day we see this huge like fountain of water coming out of the sea, right. And immediately we think oh my God, it swells. Oh my God, it's amazing. So my dad just like starts going in that direction and eventually.

[Robbie]

What do you mean going that direction?

[Maria]

In the direction of the.

[Robbie]

Can you say, can you change the. You're orientating, changing the sails to move in that direction or the modes are. Or what.

[Maria]

So the sailing. So you would. Depending on the conditions, if the conditions allow, you can change direction, of course. And so that's what they did. And at a certain point there was this huge whale just like 2 meters from our boat. Okay. Do you know what kind of whale in the surface? It's not a blue whale. I'm forgetting the name in English now.

[Robbie]

Humpback.

[Maria]

Yeah, humpback.

[Robbie]

Okay.

[Maria]

And so this huge thing just on the side of the boat and I remember just looking at it and you could See this eye as, like, bigger than a basketball and this thing looking at you from the boat. And on the side, there's this little baby whale. So, yeah, I can't even like the stars at night.

[Robbie]

Oh, I can't imagine.

[Maria]

There was one night that the sea was just like a mirror.

[Robbie]

Okay.

[Maria]

So you would. It was almost like you're in a spaceship because everything was reflected, everything was super calm. The sea was like a sea, super calm. A mirror reflecting all the stars. And I've never even. In South Africa with this beautiful skies and sunsets that we have. That was definitely the best that I've ever seen in my life. And so, yeah, we had so many beautiful experiences from really, really big waves where the sailing boat climbs the wave. Okay. When I say climb, it's because it's climbing. It's a mountain. And then it surfs the wave down. And then once it reaches the lowest part.

[Robbie]

Sorry, but you're nervous.

[Maria]

No, it's just my voice. When this is the lowest part, the other wave comes inside, like, just dives in. Okay. So I can even tell you the amount of, you know, fish that come.

[Robbie]

Inside the boat in the big waves.

[Maria]

In the big waves.

[Robbie]

Oh, my God.

[Maria]

So flying fish. You get slapped by schools of flying fish in the face because they come and then in one second you have, I don't know, 50 flying fish inside your butt and you're scooping fish out of the butt. But it can be quite a knock on once they slap you in your face. They need to be careful there. But yeah. So I think that's crazy. That childhood brought me up to be someone that believed that all dreams are possible and you just need to work hard for them.

[Robbie]

So what's your last name?

[Maria]

Maria kayadu.

[Robbie]

Kayadu?

[Maria]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

Dr. Maria Kaedu.

[Maria]

Yes.

[Robbie]

And Dr. Andy Fraser.

[Andy]

Yes, sir.

[Robbie]

Return guest on the Blood Origins podcast.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

You're laughing. Did I pop your cherry the first time we podcasted?

[Andy]

Yes. Well, I've never.

[Robbie]

Oh, my gosh, I feel so privileged. Am I popping your cherry for your first podcast, Maria?

[Maria]

Yes.

[Robbie]

I get to do a lot of popping of cherries on this podcast. Good thing Lewis isn't here. Lewis would take the joke in a lot of different directions. Everyone knows Lewis on this podcast. He's my famous. We actually have people come to tune in when we do a roundup and Louis is not on. We'll do a roundup tonight with the boys. And sometimes Lewis isn't with us, Jack's with us, and people get upset that Lewis isn't winning on podcast because he just uses the opportunity to absolutely just be Louis.

[Andy]

Well, I tell you what, Robbie, he definitely can break the ice in a serious situation. So, like, I know exactly what you're saying. Well, having a guy like that around on a trip like what we've just had.

[Robbie]

Yeah.

[Andy]

Is a absolute bonus.

[Robbie]

And the thing like in Botswana, they did a roundup. I had to go out and meet a client and whatnot. They started the podcast without me. And for six minutes it was just like, let's about Robbie. For six minutes. It was one of our best listened podcasts.

[Maria]

Oh, God.

[Robbie]

But it is like. And I'm glad that you guys have seen it. Obviously what we do, we take very seriously. And what you guys do is very serious work. And, you know, we're contributing to a very, very large, I think, wildlife conservation initiative and project. And obviously we are doing a lot of good work and hard work and I'm paying the guys well. But at the same time, you've got to have fun whilst you do it.

[Andy]

Absolutely.

[Robbie]

You know, you can't be serious all the time. And it's. This is the crew do that has managed to figure, you know, the balance out.

[Andy]

And I guess, I mean, that's, that's pretty much why we're conserving these animals. Right. So we can.

[Robbie]

What animals are we conserving, Andy? Let the world know.

[Andy]

Can I?

[Robbie]

Yeah. Because this podcast is future. Honestly, unfortunately, whoever's listening to this right now, obviously you, you're learning about this project. But we recorded this podcast probably, gosh, probably going to be between six and ten months ago.

[Andy]

Oh, wow. Okay, so, so basically, feel free to.

[Robbie]

Talk about anything and everything that just happened over the last 48 hours. 20 hours.

[Andy]

Not everything, because then Lewis is going to be in battle. Watch out.

[Robbie]

And I'm. I'm a good director of Traffic with you. You're getting excited, you're getting close to home. So you're starting to chomp.

[Andy]

Chomping at the bit.

[Robbie]

Yeah, exactly.

[Andy]

Yeah, Robbie. So we spent what, the last 48 hours?

[Robbie]

We arrived Friday. We arrived Friday at like 4:00pm and it is now almost 4:00pm on Monday.

[Andy]

So 72 hours.

[Robbie]

Three days.

[Maria]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

Yep, 72 hours. And in 72 hours we have caught 11 cheetahs.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

The estimated privately held cheetah population in South Africa is about 600. So we almost caught 2% of the cheetahs. Privately held population in 72 hours. Yeah.

[Maria]

In South Africa. Yeah.

[Andy]

In three different provinces of the country.

[Robbie]

In three different provinces. Correct. We went, we started well, let's just talk through it. Right, so let me give a background you may or may not know already, but if you don't, aren't been following the podcast series and all the content that we've released. We undertook the world's largest relocation of cheetahs ever. I think the one, the previous one was 15 cheaters. Do you know where those 15 cheaters went? Was it India? No.

[Andy]

So India was eight and 12. So two separate groups that totaled 2015 would have been into, you think, was.

[Robbie]

Heldanes, but I thought there was only 12.

[Andy]

Look, it's not usual to take more than sort of 5 or 10 at one time. So to take 18 at one time is a big deal.

[Robbie]

Yeah. And so that's.

[Andy]

And it's a challenge. It's a logistical challenge.

[Robbie]

Logistical, not challenge. I would say nightmare is better.

[Andy]

Remember, we just work here, so it's not our nightmare. It's. I hear that's a challenge.

[Robbie]

It's everyone's nightmare. It's everyone's nightmare. Anyway, so we have decided to do this. We decided to take this project on. Obviously, logistics complicated the whole kitten caboodle, but things worth doing are typically extremely hard, and there's only certain people that do it. And so that's why we decided to do this. Working with the Cheetah Metapopulation Initiative, Vincent van der Merva. And. And so we've been identifying. He identified cheetahs that we need to capture out of their native environments or out of bomas that they were in and needed to move them into different places. And so that's what we've started doing.

[Maria]

Yeah. So Friday, we started at a place called Matlablas, and we. The plan was to retrieve a mail.

[Robbie]

Yep.

[Maria]

And we got to the job. You know, everyone kind of met together late afternoon from different places.

[Robbie]

Well, just before we arrived there. Oh, man, look at all that nonsense. Just before we got there, we all arrived in Joburg. We all flew in. I was here, been here for 14 days already. The boys flew in from the UK, Colby flew in from Cape Town. You sent Megan down to pick us up. She did an awesome job. We picked up groceries, walked out to our vehicle, and unfortunately, Megan had parked over one and a half parking bays and had. The vehicle had been clamped. And we were under a strict deadline to two and a half hours of driving to go. And we knew we were catching cheetahs that evening. And so the parking guard comes and he is like, hey, you got to. Man, this is not. You're not in a good spot right now. We got problems. And Megan was saying, well, this whole parking bed was full of trolleys. Like, I couldn't park. I had to just park the way that I parked. Ah, you know, you got problems. Let me call my supervisor, the boss supervisor. And the boss come over. In that moment, I'm just. Just like, I have got to fix this. I got to move. We got to get it. We got to get out of here. So I took the only 100 rand that I have left. Thank you, Craig Martins. He gave me 200 rand. I used 100 rand for tolls, and actually, I took 100 rand for car wash. And then the other 100 rand was left. And so I put it in my hand. I put my hands behind my back. And there is a. A. A camera that's sitting above the. Above the car, off to the right, actually, of the car. And I said, man, guys, what can we do here? Oh, you have to go to the parking department and sort this out. And I said, man, really? You don't have keys right now to unlock it? He's like, yeah, I got keys. I said, was there anything we can do? Like, can we? And he's like. They both, like, glimpse at the camera and turn back to me, and they're like, we. You know, that's bribing. And I says, no, it's not bribing. I'm just like, can we. Is there any way that I can help the situation out? And I took my hand from behind my back, and I had the 100 Rand bill sticking out the top of my hand and made sure everyone saw it and put it under my armpit. Crossed my arms again and said, is any. Are you sure we can't do anything? And the guy, like, nudged his compatriot and he moved. The guy with the keys moved around to the front of the car. And I went hip to hip with the guy, back facing the camera.

[Andy]

Is that. Is that the south African part of you or the American?

[Robbie]

I think it's the South African part. And then we exchanged handshakes, essentially, hip to hip, hand to hand. And that was that. The clamp came off. I told Megan, oh, Megan. I said, megan, we gotta get out of here before somebody, like, calls and says, you guys have illegally bribed parking guards. That's just gonna get even worse. Anyway, we made it up here, and immediately, within, like, 20 minutes, we were all loaded into different vehicles, headed over to matlabas, which was, what, like an hour and a half drive? Yeah, a good hour and a half on dirt roads. We've got a fair share of dirt roads this trip, right?

[Andy]

Yeah, we didn't mention that it was two and a half thousand kilometers of driving, but probably 800 or 900 rough dirt.

[Robbie]

Right. So go ahead, Maria.

[Maria]

Yeah, so we arrived to this place and the individuals that we wanted were already in Bulma. So the plan was to dart one.

[Robbie]

Male and what were the. There were two bomas, correct?

[Andy]

Yep.

[Maria]

Yes.

[Robbie]

Two cheetahs in one.

[Maria]

Yes.

[Robbie]

One cheater in another.

[Maria]

Okay, so Dr. Andy goes in.

[Robbie]

Dr. Andy.

[Maria]

So in this sort of situation, as.

[Robbie]

In this situation, Louis would ask another question that I'm going to. I would refrain from asking, but Lewis would be proud that I even thought about it.

[Maria]

So in this sort of situation, you need to make sure that you're not applying a lot of stress to these animals.

[Robbie]

Okay.

[Maria]

And, you know, the least pressure you can put on the animals, the. The better. And so usually.

[Robbie]

How did we get there? We got there before it was light still, right?

[Andy]

Yeah, but only adjust.

[Maria]

Only adjust. So we, we kind of knew that we were going to. To work at basically sunset into the night. Um, so Andy got the dart in to the individual that was planned to come to us. The cheetah went to sleep as planned, and then we retrieved it. And once we retrieved it, we realized.

[Robbie]

What a shit show that cheetah was, man.

[Maria]

Yeah. So that unfortunately something had happened between that male and the other two males.

[Robbie]

Well, let's just set the scene though.

[Andy]

So he dug under the fence.

[Robbie]

He wasn't by himself.

[Andy]

Yeah, he dug under the fence adjoining the two camps and then realized that he had made a bad decision because he was now with two big bad cheetah boys.

[Robbie]

Oh, they were big boys.

[Andy]

Yeah, they was a big cat. And I think they ganged up on him and fucked him up. Yeah. Tried to kill him.

[Maria]

Yeah, yeah. So he, he had pretty extensive wounds on many different areas of his body.

[Robbie]

So then where were the, primarily the wounds, though?

[Maria]

In the hind limbs.

[Robbie]

And why would they go after that? Don't I hear somebody saying that that's where they go after. They go after the testicles, right? Yeah.

[Andy]

So is that.

[Robbie]

Or does they just.

[Andy]

They're just a naturally, like, flighty species. So I think when they get into that kind of situation, one of them is going to end up retreating. And I think, you know, the individual retreated and the two big boys just get a hold of him and grab his backside.

[Robbie]

Do you need me to look at the directions or, you know, Evan, from now on.

[Andy]

Let me check, Let me check.

[Robbie]

Robbie.

[Maria]

Yeah. So that point we realized that his cheated needed extensive treatment and in the field we started working on him and doing our best. It ended up being an hour and a little bit of anesthesia so that we could, with what we had at the, at the time, do our best job. But also we realized that this animal is still in a critical state. We actually now, this afternoon, once we arrive to the farm, we're going to treat it again. But so what?

[Robbie]

What, what? So it had extensive bite marks.

[Maria]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

On its back, hind leg, right, left leg. Andy, you thought that it had the hamstring had detached.

[Andy]

Yeah. So the, the hamstring attaches onto the, the tubercoxa, like the pin bone of the, of the cats. And there was a bit of a cavity there that the muscle should have been in. And I don't know if you've ever seen when a Jim gar pops his bicep, it kind of contracts up into a little ball and it felt like its hamstring was in a bit of a ball like that. So we'll need to assess now what kind of damage is there and then make a prudent decision on how we go ahead treating him.

[Robbie]

Had a big cut on its left leg. Had a cut in its front left paw. Right.

[Maria]

So one of the back legs had that cut that had also exposed bone, which is. That was hectic, complicated as well. So at that point we were so discussing now this animal needs extensive treatment and, you know, it's not the individual at this point that is going to be sent to Mozambique. So we had to make another call, basically.

[Robbie]

Which was the right call.

[Maria]

Yeah. And now it's pitch black. We've been working for an hour and a half.

[Robbie]

Yeah.

[Maria]

At night, basically. And then Andy goes back into the boma.

[Robbie]

We all went in. Yeah, Me, the camera crew, all in the back of a vehicle. Yeah.

[Maria]

And yeah, and then Andy made an incredible shot and we got this other.

[Robbie]

All caught on camera.

[Maria]

All caught on camera.

[Robbie]

Yeah, Two different angles.

[Maria]

And we got this other beautiful big male patched one, Jake.

[Andy]

Lovely, lovely.

[Robbie]

Was he the biggest cheetah of the troop?

[Maria]

Yeah, I don't think so.

[Robbie]

He was tank.

[Andy]

Yeah. Probably a good half. 50 kgs to like 58 kg kit. Yeah, yeah.

[Robbie]

Big head as well. Big blocky head.

[Maria]

So that moment, you know, once dart is in, you need to make quick decision of, you know, it's pitch black. How are you going to find that animal? Although it's in a boma, it's still a big boma and, you know, the decision that we made or that Andy Made of just standing by and letting the animals go. Giving them a couple of minutes until we then would approach. Made it for a lovely.

[Robbie]

She's came around the corner. He's on the bloody road, wobbling. And then fell over on the road.

[Maria]

Fell over and went to sleep right on the road.

[Andy]

That's been like the. The segue into the rest of our trip. We've just been so lucky all the way along.

[Maria]

Yeah. But I definitely think that.

[Andy]

Yeah, man.

[Robbie]

Cheaters. Yeah, yeah. Not with everything else.

[Andy]

Yeah, not with everything else. Look, you got to look at the end results. And luckily we had issues with. With vehicles and getting stuck in roads and not with which you'll get to.

[Robbie]

But every cheetah. Yes, you're right. Every cheetah. We were like from here on in, no injuries, super easy, challenging conditions.

[Andy]

No mortalities.

[Robbie]

No mortalities. But.

[Maria]

Yeah, yeah. So.

[Robbie]

So we took those all home.

[Maria]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

What time do we get home?

[Andy]

We go none or 30.

[Robbie]

Are you drugs on drugs or something? Are you on drugs Friday night?

[Maria]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

You don't remember what time we got home? One o'.

[Maria]

Clock. Oh, yeah, indeed. It was a bit late because at.

[Robbie]

Night you started cooking Boerevors. I was like, now that's with that 12:30 in the morning, we're. We are out. We are going to. Because we then still had to drive 10 minutes to the house.

[Andy]

Yeah, you did.

[Robbie]

Right. And then you were like, 4 o', clock, come back here. 4:30. I was like. We were like, oh, my God.

[Andy]

Yeah. And it's three days ago and it feels. Feels like last year.

[Robbie]

Yeah, you got it, you got it, you got it, you got it.

[Maria]

Yeah. So once you do get the cat, it can be quite a quick procedure of just, you know, making sure the anesthesia is going well, the cat is being well monitored. And do any other supplements? You know, like, we usually administer an antibiotic. We administer mineral and vitamin supplement. And also.

[Robbie]

You did that all with the cat on the. On the tailgate?

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Maria]

Yes.

[Robbie]

Okay.

[Maria]

Vaccine against rabies. We also disinfect the dart wound, of course, because we. We can't really disinfect prior to the darting, basically. And then we reversed anesthesia, but also tranquilize the animal. Okay. It's very important for the transport.

[Robbie]

But also, let's talk about the drugs that are going into these cheetahs. What do you use first to knock them down?

[Andy]

Yeah. So on these guys, we used two different drugs. What's two different products? But one's got two drugs inside it. So it's a combination of three drugs. One metatomidine and the other product Xylitol which has got Xolazepam similar to Valium and tamine which is similar to Ketamine. So those three drugs in stressful conditions seem to give the best like quick knockdown which is quite important with a, with a cheetah. And they're quite highly strung and can build up a lot of negative metabolites quickly. They're not adapted to prolonged periods of stress. So you can stress them briefly and intensely but then you got to get them under control. So we use those, those two products to get them asleep and then we reverse the metatomidine once they're in the transport crate. And then just to supplement their tranquilization we've been using a product called water based, water based Pfenezine. And that gives us anywhere between two days and four days of good quality tranquilization. You know, they, they can still walk around, their appetite still seems to be good, they express normal behavior but it just takes the edge off where it just stops them, you know, supermanning into the fences and things like that. So some of the cats that we, that we work on are like free ranging individuals that aren't part of managed populations. They kind of come and go whenever they please and they by design survive because they avoid human activity. And then we put them into these quarantine facilities which are very different to their natural conditions. So a good quality tranquilization is critical to them settling in and you know, staying alive and healthy through the quarantine process.

[Robbie]

Oh, okay. So we got home midnight, we said look, we're going to get together at 4:30 because tomorrow we've got, you know, nine, nine hours of driving in front of us. Yeah, we did get a little bit of a sleep in that morning because we, we pushed the, we pushed the departure to 7:00am could have pushed it to 8:00am Probably.

[Andy]

Yeah, probably.

[Robbie]

But it was good to get on the road.

[Andy]

Luck favors the prepared. Yeah.

[Robbie]

So had about four and a half hours of sleep. We all got on the road. We drove from Limpopo, Royburg, which is where your vet practice is. Right. And you two guys own Royburg Veterinary Services?

[Andy]

Yep. So we own the practice and then we also own the property that we operate on. So we're fortunate enough to have a small fire area, but 400 hectares and there we run like, you know, small populations of South African wildlife species but then also have these quarantine facilities and our little clinic. Yeah, so it's a kind of our little perfect place. Yeah, we'd love to have a bigger spot one day, but you got to start. Start somewhere.

[Robbie]

Sure, sure, sure. Well, looks like watch out for these cones up here. Good old South African road system here. We must have avoided all of this nonsense on the way out.

[Andy]

Yeah, we definitely didn't come this way.

[Robbie]

Those guys are looking for money for repairing the roads.

[Andy]

Yep.

[Robbie]

Yeah.

[Andy]

It looks like if you ever come into South Africa, don't blindly follow the gps.

[Maria]

That's actually great advice. I have no saying.

[Robbie]

Especially on Saturday night. Yeah, yeah. So we drove nine hours from Limpopo to a very, very high fluted, very well known game, private game reserve called Swalu. Tualu is in the Kalahari, it's in the Northern Cape. As I said, nine hours of driving, a completely different ecosystem. Tualu is, what do we say, 120,000 hectares?

[Andy]

Yeah, it's a pretty vast place in the South African context. And it's just a beautiful landscape.

[Robbie]

Has everything, has wild dogs, has rhino, it does not have elephant. They've been very good. It's owned by the Oppenheimers. They've been very good about keeping it very consistent to what, you know, potentially was free roaming there back and without human, you know, habitation or whatnot. So no elephants, but they've got buffalo, rhino, they've got lion that are separate from the cheetahs, they've got leopard. Beautiful, beautiful kudu. Like the biggest kudu I have ever seen in my life were there.

[Andy]

Yeah, Big bodies, great condition, but tall as well.

[Robbie]

Like, we looked at that kudu cow on the side of the road when he left and I looked up at.

[Andy]

Her or the one that didn't jump.

[Robbie]

On screen, just look, looked, looked up at her. Not like eye level. She's like, geez, huge, huge. We met Clemence from Tualu. Clements is one of the section managers and his sections are predator control. He mentioned a couple of others, but predator control, which would predator management was the seeing. So the boma was under his career and we were there to pick up three male cheetahs that we have affectionately called the Kalahari Boys. They've been in Burma for six months. Do we know why they were there for? Why they were in Burma for so long is trying to reduce their cheetah population significantly, Right?

[Andy]

Yeah, I wouldn't say reduce it significantly. I think they do very, very well with, you know, their population number. So they seem to breed very well. There's. And they kind of always, always have been a source population for translocations to elsewhere. So they just seem to be doing super well. So they've got the ability to relocate to other properties without putting pressure on their resident population.

[Robbie]

Gotcha. So these three, as I understood from Kevin, these three cheetahs were known in and around the area. People who were letting them know they were coming through the farm landscapes.

[Andy]

Okay.

[Robbie]

They made a huge detour around Swahilu and came in like a back door kind of scenario. Didn't sound like they were desirable cheaters. Yeah, these three look.

[Andy]

And they male as well. Right. So they, they contribute less to, to the population. Females at the moment are, are more valuable to us because they are breeding engines. So a coalition of three boys like.

[Robbie]

That.

[Andy]

That have a habit of going across to agricultural land and maybe munching on some livestock or affecting livestock farmers in the surrounding area, maybe are good animals to move on somewhere else.

[Robbie]

Have we already been talking for 30 minutes?

[Andy]

Supposedly Tom following and having fun, right?

[Robbie]

Yeah.

[Maria]

Wow.

[Robbie]

I was. Looked at the time, I was like Jim's creepers. So in terms of dieting cheetahs of this whole trip.

[Maria]

You.

[Robbie]

I would say that you would, you would agree those three were the most challenging.

[Andy]

Yeah. So I've, I've never seen cheetah that wild in a boma. You know, when you get, if you've.

[Robbie]

Got one not habituated or is that what you're saying?

[Andy]

Yeah, but I mean, I didn't know about the frequenting cattle farms and stuff around the area. So that might be why, you know, again, by design they've maybe survived because they avoid human contact. So the last thing they want in an enclosed space is a, is a human with him with a dart gun, you know, chasing them around. So when you've got one cat like that, they can be tricky to manage, but when you've got three, it's a nightmare because they, the moment you dot one of them, they all know what's going on. So it gets progressively harder and harder to get subsequent darts into the remaining animals. And they. The kind of animal that doesn't need to stop, they just get sort of wound up, but they just keep running around the boma. You know, Lewis and Paddy got such amazing footage of us working in there. And there you can see how they just don't stop moving. So you've got an animal that doesn't have the greatest muscular cover over its bone structure. So you gotta be careful of breaking bones when you work with these animals. And the further they are, the harder you gotta shoot the dart to get there. And if they're moving, you Gotta try and compensate for where they're going to be when the Dart gets there 100% and then. Which actually ended up working in our favor. But it was also ended up being in the dark because we got there at last light. We also needed to wait for the, for the temperature to cool down before we started working.

[Robbie]

That's right, that's right.

[Andy]

So yeah, luckily they seem to settle a little bit when it went dark. But darting in the dark is a little bit interesting also.

[Robbie]

Did you even have a light with you?

[Andy]

So I had a, I had a torch with me but they, they're not super fond of that torch. So I would kind of use the torch to identify like shooting lanes that were free of like little sticks and grass reflect the dart. And I'd have to wait for the silhouette of the cheetah to go into that opening. Yeah, I was like, you know, those are moments that as a vet I live for. You know, they, they challenging and they, they get your blood pumping at, in the moment. But I think when you get it done successfully and you look back, it's definitely highlights of what we do.

[Robbie]

And Maria, from your perspective, we were all back at the trucks. Andy was sent in, camera crew was sent in. We don't hear anything. We don't know what's happening. All you're hearing is radio comms, right?

[Maria]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

What's going through your brain?

[Maria]

So usually like something that we've discussed was that everyone perspective of an habituated or calm cats is different. And once I realized it's been 10, 18 almost, I think 18 minutes and I haven't heard through to the radio.

[Robbie]

Oh. Because we had this like great plan. The carcass is going to go in, they were going to approach the carcass, shoot the last one, they both were going to come back, shoot the next one and then go in and get the third.

[Maria]

Exactly. So at, if you know, not knowing anything at 10 minutes made me realize, okay, hit this road.

[Robbie]

Andy.

[Andy]

Yeah, Robbie, you were definitely in control of the GPS an hour ago.

[Robbie]

Yes. Driving on the side of the highway here.

[Maria]

Sure. But yeah, it was going to be a difficult darting. But you know, we pushed through and at a moment, you know, Andy communicated that two animals were already down so that we could approach because the third one was. Had been darted.

[Robbie]

Okay.

[Maria]

So that's what we did. So we approached to remove.

[Robbie]

We all went in.

[Maria]

Yeah, we all went in to remove the two individuals that were oriented down and basically moved back to where we left all the other vehicles to.

[Robbie]

Well, something happened in between Eh, Yes.

[Maria]

But basically alleviate the pressure so that Annie could continue to do his work. But yeah, yeah, go, go.

[Robbie]

So I was with you. We walked up to the first cheetah. You put a blindfold on him. We were holding the stretcher, brought the stretcher in the. We put the cheetah on the stretcher. We started carrying it out and you were like, just keep it parallel, keep it parallel. We put it in the back of the truck.

[Maria]

I go to see the other cheetah.

[Robbie]

You said, I'm going to go get the other cheetah. So you go get the other cheetah. This cheetah gets pulled back ass to the back of the. Of the truck. And what they do is they, they know another cheetah's coming and so they're like, okay, we've got to make space for the cheetah. And the cheetah's legs are facing left, so its back is towards the middle of the truck. Its feet are facing left, its ass is towards the back. And as they shift it, they shift its legs like up over the wheel well. So now the cat is essentially lying on its back.

[Maria]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andy]

And a cat doesn't often like to.

[Robbie]

Be on its back even though it is fast asleep. You, I don't know where you are. But all we hear, all we start hearing from this cat is everyone, there's two people in the truck. I've got the tailgate is down. I. I've got the heads like where I'm. I'm standing up against the back of the tailgate. He kicks his back legs out. So the person in the back of the truck goes, whoa. Then he like lifts his body up and as he lifts his. Sorry. He lifts his head up. As he lifts his head up. He shook it and that took the, the blindfold. The blindfold off. Well, when he took the blindfold off, he stuck his front legs down and he spun 180 whilst he was growling. And the two people in the truck were out of the truck in two seconds. They just jumped over the black bars that were encasing the truck. The cheetah then flopped over, essentially still growling, but didn't attempt to get up anymore. And I reached in and his back was now like diagonally across the truck. So I reached in and I grabbed its head scarf was blindfold, and I came around the right hand side of the truck because its head now is like right next to the wheel well on the other side of the truck. And I put the scarf like over its eyes and I kept my Hand there. And I was just like, somebody needs to call someone because the shit is hitting the ceiling fan and there's no vets around.

[Maria]

Yeah. So I get, you know, someone approaches me, I'm with other cheetah someone. We need a vet. The cheetah is awake. So I run directly to the cheetah and then Dr. Andy also arrives at the same time. And we control the situation.

[Robbie]

Yeah. And you told me off right away. You know that, right?

[Andy]

Yeah, just leave it alone.

[Robbie]

You're like, take your hand off of it. I'm like, okay, done.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

I can, like, keep this cheetah in the truck.

[Andy]

I'm about, what, a hundred meters away, trying to sort out the last cat under pressure, and I just hear a commotion. And I get there and you like. I mean, it was necessary at the time, like, forcefully. I got this cat down on the back of the. The bed of the truck. And one of the drugs that we use to knock them out is. Is overridden by adrenaline, so inhibited by adrenaline. So in that point, you actually just let them do their thing and just leave them alone. And they'll. If everyone's quiet, they'll go back to sleep. But, yeah, I'm also worried about your safety, Robbie. We. We needed you for the rest of the weekend to dig vehicles out of the photo of the sand.

[Maria]

So got the anesthesia under control and then put the two individuals in the back of the car and left Andy to do his job. And we went and did our side of the job, which was to process the cheetah again, put them inside the crates again.

[Andy]

And what a good job they do, eh? So lucky to be able to focus on, like, working on the third cat while, you know, you've got someone competent to take care of the like.

[Robbie]

Yeah. And there was chaos happening. Like, I. I was next to Maria, I was suddenly learning how to open oxygen tanks, put oxygen tubes into cheetah's noses, pole socks on the tongue.

[Maria]

Yeah, it was pitch black, guys. Again, it was pitch black. Pitch black.

[Robbie]

We're using iPhone. All everyone's. Everybody who had a phone had their lights on and giving everyone light. And Maria's trying to find.

[Maria]

We were. Again, we're in the Kalahari Desert. Okay. So it means that we waited as long as possible to work, you know, start working when the temperature was starting to decrease, but still the animals were quite hot.

[Robbie]

Yeah.

[Maria]

So we had to get the temperatures down. And how we do that is, of course, place an IV and ministry fluids, but also we can use ice packs to start decreasing their temperature. And while you do that, you're monitoring the oxygen, you're supplementing oxygen and monitoring the temperature and doing everything else that needs to get done, including putting the cheetah inside the crates, which can be quite a gymnastics job, I have to say.

[Robbie]

Well, we figured out that you can fit into a cheating crate.

[Maria]

I definitely fit in a cheetah crate with a cheetah inside.

[Robbie]

With a full grown male cheetah inside. Yep, yep. But you were working under so much pressure. There's all these people watching because obviously it's swallow and everyone wants to see and everyone wants to be a part of it and everyone's awking and looking. The, the radio is cackling because Andy's asking for updates, you know, giving you instructions explaining what's happening with the third cheetah. Whilst all the time you had all these eyeballs on you as you're trying to put a catheter into one of the cheetahs. You can't find the, the blood vessel for a couple of times and. But we got it in. You got it in eventually and we got the third cheetah out.

[Andy]

Everyone was in and he had broken into their Jason Bomer. He just Superman through Binox fence, which is a pretty good, pretty good fence. So yeah, we actually had to find him next door.

[Maria]

Yeah. So yeah. So eventually had the little pet cheetah inside the crate and started the reversal process and a truck and tranquilizing them as well for the trip. And I think, you know, that's when actually everything's starting to happen, that once we had the cheetah in the back of the cars and after quite a. I can say that it was a bit of a stressful capture. And then, and then. Yeah, and then our trip went to different levels.

[Robbie]

Yeah, I was like, yeah. So then the trip from there, from Tswalu, we went from Tswalu to a place called Neutburchen and that is literally near the Botswana border. Nothing is around. There is no tar road within a 200 kilometer radius of the nearest town. And the place that we're going is 50km from the nearest town. And we put it in the gps. Right. This is how we need to get there. And we start and it says that we're going to, it's going to take three and a half hours. We left at probably 10ish, even earlier, 9:15. But I think. Didn't it say we're going to get there at one? Oh no, it started past one, we were going to quarter past one and as we're driving, it starts going, it just starts going up and up and up, like 120, 130. So it's about 1:30 on, on average, like this is. You're going to get that 1:30 in the morning. We're like, all right. And so we start driving. Obviously, we've got cheetahs in the back. We get onto dirt road very, very early on in the journey. I distinctly remember seeing like 2 hours and 52 minutes left to go and we were on dirt already. There's like, you know, as you said, 230Ks that we had to go on dirt. So we start going on dirt. Vince is convinced this is the road. You know, the other road is terrible, but this is also a terrible road. And we're like, ah, it can't be that bad. Well, it got really bad, really rutted, forced you to go slowly. And at about, gosh, it was about 1:30 in the morning. About 1:30 in the morning. Well, it was about earlier. Maybe, maybe, maybe one o', clock, 12:30 to one o', clock, we got into this uphill section of deep sand. We were the lead vehicle. The camera guys were behind us and then Justin and Katie were behind them. We got stuck first. Yeah, we bogged down in the deep sand, not in a four wheel drive vehicle. Then Lewis and Colby got stuck behind us. They bogged down and then Justin and Katie bogged down. So we have three vehicles. Vince is gone. We got a message out to him saying, hey, turn around. Which in the end we didn't actually need him because we just wanted to let him know we're stuck because he said he's got a 4x4. But then it turns out he didn't have a 4x4. And so we just, we just were like, oh, crap. We're like really in, in a problem state. And so we got your vehicle out, right, Number one. And then the other two, we try to get out without digging and they just, they seriously closed down. They seriously got stuck. And we're like, okay, we're done, we're done. We're going to be. And look, honestly, as Lewis pointed out, it would, if there was a time to pick to be stuck in deep sand in the Kalahari. It's 1:30 in the morning.

[Andy]

100% right.

[Robbie]

It was 14 degrees. It was beautiful. The stars were out. It was actually beautiful. It was honestly beautiful.

[Andy]

Somehow Maria found the beauty in the messed up situation. But, yeah, we were lucky.

[Robbie]

And we just were like, we just resigned ourselves. We're like, all right, look, we're stuck here for the night. We even started thinking about plans, like, all right, if we get unstuck, we're just going to turn around, get out of here. Vincent came, and Vince, the only thing that he brought to the bear was like, look, you've only got a kilometer of this stuff left. So if you just gas it and get through it and then the. The bad stuff is done. And so we just resigned ourselves to, like, all right, let's just dig these vehicles out. And as we started digging, we realized there's quite a hard pan underneath all of this deep sand. And so we found buckets. We found your buckets, we found your jugs. We used everything that we could. Patrick was under there with a stick.

[Andy]

Lewis was only a little, like, beach spade short of, like, a little beach set.

[Robbie]

Oh, my gosh. We used everything at our. At our fingertips.

[Maria]

We dick, basically.

[Robbie]

And we dug and dug and dug and dug and dug. And so then I got in the Fortuna, and they were like, no, no, no, let's wait. Let's wait to get to it. I said, no, let's just give it a go. And a little bit of even with an automatic. A little reverse drive. A little reverse drive, reverse drive. And I got out, I got onto hard ground.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

And I parked sideways across the road. Well, you were clear. And so you decided, no, you're going to come back. And you started coming back, and you hauled ass past the first truck. And we all turned around and watched you, and we were like, oh, shit, the Fortuna's parked across. He's going to smack it. And, dude, you missed it by, like, six inches. We saw the thing fishtail out, like, this. Fishtail around it. We were like, oh, my God.

[Andy]

It was a rental. We could have done without it.

[Robbie]

Yeah, exactly. Well, then Vince did the same thing, just hauling ass. We're like, oh, my God, he's going to smash the rental vehicle. Didn't smash the rental vehicle. And then we got the other. The other vehicle out, and we just gassed all three vehicles out of a deep sand. And now it's 308 in the morning.

[Andy]

Yep. Town just, like, disappeared, eh?

[Robbie]

Yeah, we were all on a high at that point.

[Andy]

I've never been so stoked to get out of a sandpit in my life.

[Robbie]

Oh, man, it was unbelievable. Un. Freaking believable. And so we pushed on, and we. We arrived. Oh, no. That wasn't even the end of it.

[Andy]

Nope.

[Robbie]

So then we pushed on, and Vince says to us, at the last junction, there's 50Ks to go. Vince says, I've only got 35Ks left of gas. You gotta be kidding me. And so we just push on. Vince runs out of gas 15km out. We go past him. We get to the gate. Rob Gradwell from Neutbrucken meets us there, takes us in. He then turns around, goes, delivers gas or petrol or diesel to Vince with the Kinlay soldier.

[Andy]

I mean, he's been waiting there expecting us. At 1am, like 4:30, he's outing around delivering gas.

[Robbie]

Yep. So 4:20, we all climb in the beds because the chopper's arriving at 7am.

[Andy]

Sharp and we slow to offload the.

[Robbie]

Cheetah, and we have to offload the cheetah. And so we make a decision like, look, we need to get. We need to get two hours of sleep. The cheaters are fine. They were well tranquilized. Obviously, they had gone through a journey and a half as well, just like us. They were in the back of the trucks in crates, by the way. Not just losers. And yeah, I think we all agreed. We all slept like the dead for two hours. And then we woke up at six. I woke up at six. And then we had just a couple of wins. Like right out the gate, we transferred the one cheetah onto the other, onto the bucky with the other two cheetahs. We had three cheetahs. That went very smoothly. I drove the three cheetahs out to the boma, we took them off. They walked out of the containers perfectly. We took the containers out, put them back on the truck, came back to you guys. No, we didn't. Did we come back? Did we come back or did we just go out?

[Andy]

I think you might have gone straight out.

[Maria]

Yeah, I think you then came to us.

[Robbie]

That's right. You would chop it in the field. So we came out to you guys and. And then we got bad news.

[Andy]

Yeah. So we were supposed to get set pins from the collar every hour and we just didn't get them.

[Robbie]

No, every three hours. Okay, 5 o', clock, 8 o'. Clock. We did not get a. He got a 5 o' clock pin. No, he didn't get a 5 o' clock pin and he didn't get an 8 o' clock pin. So we woke up. Let's just. Saturday morning, we wake up, I go transfer the cheetahs into the Boma. No snafus moved. Things came out to you guys. You guys were already in the field. The chopper had already gone over. Chopper was there at seven o'.

[Maria]

Clock.

[Robbie]

Great guy, Jerry. Bac helicopters or Something out of Freiburg. Shout out to Jerry.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

You were worried about, you know, what kind of helicopter pilot you were going to get.

[Andy]

I think he's probably worried about what kind of vet he's going to get. You know, I think a vet and pilot team is a pretty critical combo. So. Yeah, I mean they've got your life in, in their hands, right?

[Robbie]

Yeah, sure.

[Andy]

You never know. And Jerry turned out to be a absolute beast.

[Robbie]

Legend. Freaking legend, Jerry. Yeah. So we come out and this collar, this is a female. Got a bit of a history here. And five cubs. She has raised five cubs.

[Andy]

There's no male in her first litter.

[Robbie]

Yeah.

[Andy]

Which is pretty crazy.

[Robbie]

First litter, exactly. She's not very old. She's probably a three year old cheetah.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

These cubs are 21, 21 months old and, and so it's got a, the female, the male, the mother has a collar on her that is a satellite and VHF collar. So the satellite is going to ping every three hours, 5 o', clock, 8 o', clock, 11 o' clock and so forth, 2 o' clock and 5 o' clock. And it's got a VHF so you can do that kind of telemetry work. And turns out we did not get a sat pin at five. Yeah, we did not get a sat pin at eight.

[Andy]

Which makes it challenging, you know, to limit. And unfortunately the, the collar was, I think it's 17% so the VHF signal started to get quite weak so we had to be quite close to, to be able to pick it up. And on 25000 hectares close is not something that you're going to be. So yeah, we did our best, we try to find her Saturday morning but just, just couldn't come right. You know, these cats are pretty good at hiding so even if you do fly right over them, you can see them, you can miss them. So if you don't know exactly where they are, that can be a challenge.

[Robbie]

And how long did we work to. We worked around about nine, right?

[Andy]

Yeah. So I mean we only were able to start at about 7 because the helicopter had to ferry from far. And I mean by, by 9:30 it was like 37 degrees already.

[Robbie]

Yeah. Okay.

[Andy]

So now Tudor are very susceptible to heat stress and you just, you just don't want to be working at that temperature. So the fact that we weren't finding her, we didn't know where we were or where she was looking for her blindly is just a waste of time and resources. So plus we were I think all very grateful to get the opportunity to Go get some downtime. So, yeah, we called it off until. Until the afternoon or until we found a. Until we got a GPS pin. The moment we got a GPS pin, we would make an assessment and decide on what to do.

[Robbie]

Yeah, it was, you know, when we came back from that, we were all pretty down on. On ourselves because obviously we'd had a long night, we only had two hours of sleep, and we were like, all right, 11 o'. Clock. The pin's gonna come in at 11 o'. Clock. We'll wait until the 11 o' clock pin and then we'll make a decision. The satellite pin or the 11 o' clock sat pin did not come in. And I was in the frame of mind of. And I talked it through with you. If that 11 o' clock satellite pin doesn't come through, we're out here. Like, we just got to go. Yeah, like, we've come all this way. It's not going to work if we can't find these cheaters. We can't find these cheaters. There's no point hanging around for another 24 hours if we can't find these bloody cheaters. Yeah.

[Andy]

And we all agreed. Except for Vince.

[Robbie]

Except for Vince. And for once he was like, nope, we're gonna. We need to catch these cats. Because if we don't catch these cats, they're gonna get euthanized. And let's just wait for the five o' clock pin. We're here. And he was like, we're gonna stay. We're gonna even go to tomorrow. Yep. You got nothing to do tomorrow, right? Oh, you're only flying out on Tuesday. Let's just stay here. And I was like, oh, my God. And my mindset does not work like that anyway. And so we all like, all right, let's just catch up on sleep. We all went and got some Z's. Everyone was just super lazy. Everyone got super hungry at lunchtime. And. And John. Not John, Rob went out at 4 o', clock, and all of a sudden we got news back. I've got a really strong VHF signal in this area. And so we were like, okay, it's on. Like, it's on. We wait for the 5 o' clock sat pin. 5 o' clock sat pin doesn't actually come through again, but we've got a strong VHF signal. And so it's like, all right, let's. Let's mobilize. We're gonna. We're gonna start driving out there at 5:30. Chop is gonna take off at 6, and off we go. Well, what you don't realize is Vince being the driver that he is. I don't know where we're going. Right. You're already out there.

[Maria]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

Justin's gone to take pictures of the Kalahari boys. We don't have radio comms.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

And so. Or were you behind me, Maria? Were you out there already?

[Maria]

So I was with Tians.

[Robbie]

Oh, right.

[Maria]

Chance was driving front, then me, then I think eventually you.

[Robbie]

No, no, no, no, no. Because I was following. I had to follow Vince.

[Maria]

Oh, yeah, yeah. So I crossed with you guys, and then I just continued on. And then you stayed back. Yes, I remember that. Yeah.

[Robbie]

And so Vince is like, I know where I'm going. Follow me. And the dude literally drives at 120 and was gone. And like, I was white knuckle driving, saying, Colby, you just. So all we did was at one point, he was so far ahead of us, we couldn't even see dust in the Kalahari. Right. So all we were doing is watching the vehicle tracks. Like, when we got to a crossroad, where did the vehicle tracks go? Did they go straight or they turn left? And we just found our way to Justin and the chopper was there. We then came, you guys took off. We drove to where you were already, Maria. And by the time we got there, you had one dart in the cheetah. And, oh, before let's set the scene here. And I told you, I said, look, there was so many things, like, could have gone wrong. And I said, look, Andy, I said, two females. Like, we know we have to get five. Like, the expectation was to dart from Vince was you're going to kill, not kill, you're going to dart five. All five cubs. And obviously, anybody listening to this can logistically think, like, how. What are the challenges that are going to go wrong here? You know, you've got. They can scatter, they can bomb away from each other, you know, chasing the heat. We've talked about all this. We don't want to stress the animals too much. Boom, boom, boom. Helicopter pilot, new vet. New, you know, vet, helicopter pilot combo. Like, geez. So you take over because you now are in the chopper.

[Andy]

Somewhere in that timeline, we eventually got a satman.

[Robbie]

So.

[Andy]

So we.

[Robbie]

So the five o' clock SAP and did come through.

[Andy]

Yeah. But at like 5:30.

[Robbie]

Oh. So, okay, okay.

[Andy]

So when we took off, we had a good idea of where they would be, and luckily they were on a kill that they had made earlier that afternoon. Oh. So they all had nice big full.

[Maria]

Tummies, which is not the best for honesty.

[Andy]

No, it's not. So, I mean, you've. You've got like. There's probably close to 40 degrees that day.

[Maria]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

Yep.

[Andy]

When we took off, I got into the helicopter and I said to Jerry, Jerry, I don't think I've ever been in a helicopter and felt air this hot. And he said, yeah, but it cools down quickly out here, so let's just. Let's just get going. And it did. I mean, it was probably.

[Robbie]

It's a six o'. Clock.

[Andy]

Yeah. I mean, by the time we were darting, it was probably 6:15. Yeah. Even later because we. He had to leave because we ran out of light. So it was right before dusk. And so we cruised out there. I found all six Tudor mom and five cubs sitting on top of the kill. And I think, you know, airplanes and choppers do fly over every now and then. So initially they just look at you inquisitively, and the moment that metal, like, bird comes down and descends on them, they know something's up and they just start running in different directions. You know, they kind of. They keep contact with each other, but they don't run together like a herd of animals that uses their herd for safety. So as they run off on their own, you got to try. Try and start getting darts in. So, and if you get a dart in and the cat that you've darted is isolated from the group, you then have to just follow that cat until it goes to sleep. So, you know, that takes anywhere between five and 10 minutes. The moment that we think that the animals asleep enough that we can leave it under visual, like supervision of the ground crew, we then move on to the next one. And it just went smooth like clockwork. We managed to get three cats.

[Robbie]

Let's talk through. You got the first cat, and that's. That's when you were hovering right above us. Right. And that's when you were communicating to Maria. Because we stopped. I was like, oh, cool. Let's take it out the vehicles. We're gonna start videoing. Maria's like this freaking drill sergeant telling us all, get back in the vehicle.

[Andy]

Yeah. So, I mean, any kind of stress or stimulation during the induction period stops them going to sleep.

[Maria]

Exactly.

[Andy]

Plus they kind of wake up the way they go to sleep. So if they had a stressful induction, they wake up a little freaked out. So we just need absolutely no pressure on that animal to allow the drugs to do their job. And. But obviously we've. Now we've driven so far, everyone's hopped up, like, first thing, everyone wants to do is run over to this animal and like, get it under control, you know, but it's. It's counterintuitive and you just got to leave it alone. So, yeah, we were hovering over you guys, trying to. Trying to manage everything from there because obviously we've got comms with you guys on the ground, and the moment we think we can leave, we leave and try and find the group again.

[Maria]

So then we basically waited a couple of minutes to just, you know, not pressure the animal, let him go proper to sleep. And yeah, was that little couple of minutes just managing everyone and communicating to anyone, to everyone that just stay in your car, don't make sounds. Um, we know where the animal is. We just now need to give it a bit more time. And so while, you know, Andy was in a helicopter going to find out animals and dart them, we then approached.

[Robbie]

So at this point, Rob turns around because you've now put a second dart.

[Andy]

Yes. We then had a second dart in another cub, so we needed a ground crew to come and attend to that and all.

[Robbie]

So I drove behind Rob to that one. And what's interesting, when we pulled out, that cheetah was just super, just beautiful. It was like, it was stretchy, it wasn't laying down. It was just like head on its paws, like asleep, like a little cat, like a little dog. And they were putting a pink collar on her. And I was like, oh, man, this car. Is this smoke coming from the engine or the back of the vehicle? It looks like the back of the.

[Andy]

Vehicle coming out of the.

[Robbie]

Oh, yeah, exhaust. And I asked Chad, I said, you know, what is it about this cheetah that makes you so, you know, not a little nostalgic? And he's like, I watched this cheetah as a cub, you know, and he was excited for where these cheetahs were going to go into Mozambique. And so then we. You. The instruction came, hey, you need to load this cheetah into the back of the truck. Because we were going to follow you because you had put the chopper down. We were following. Then you put the chopper down.

[Andy]

Well, we put it down to pick up the third one.

[Robbie]

So you darted the third one?

[Andy]

Yeah. And. And she went down nice and quickly. So we decided just to load her into the helicopter.

[Robbie]

Okay. Yeah.

[Andy]

So then we loaded her up just to save time, because the whole time this is all going on, the other non immobilized cats are disappearing. So we then loaded the third one in the heli, flew her over to, like, the working area so we could get Going and try find the last three.

[Maria]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

But then we just called it because it was 7:15.

[Andy]

Yeah. Well, we. We looked for another 15 or 20 minutes, couldn't find them. And obviously the sun is going to go down at some point, and you don't want to have a cheetah half darted when the pilot says, well, sorry, I have to go now, because he's got laws to follow and he can't fly in the dark. So you got to make a decision to call it at some point. And I mean, three for us at that stage, I think was a success.

[Robbie]

Well, it's way over what we expected. And turns out all three female.

[Andy]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we quit while we were ahead.

[Maria]

And then just to get back to that first female that was darted once, you know, I arrived to her, she. She wasn't with the best, so her face was laying on the sand, basically, so she couldn't breathe properly. But I noticed that she wasn't asleep asleep. So then I just moved her quickly to get her in a nice position so that she can breathe properly, and then also topped her up a little bit just to make sure that she would relax. And. Yeah. And then as we started working with one, you know, Rob arrived with another one.

[Robbie]

And then Vincent looked visuals of all three cheetahs on this beautiful Kalahari sand. Temperature was cool. Cheetahs are being cooled down, cool packs being put on them.

[Maria]

So cheetah temperatures wasn't. They were over 41.

[Andy]

Over 41 degrees.

[Maria]

So it's not the best case, but we are doing everything possible to, you know, slowly start to reduce their core temperature. But, you know, it's. It's so hot out there. It's. End of the day, the sand is hot, everything's hot. It's a stressful procedure for them. And. Yeah. So when everything went smoothly and every individual did great under anesthesia, we put them inside the crates and transported them.

[Robbie]

To the Boma, released them in the Boma. Everyone was fine. And literally, we were all gobsmacked because we were home at 8:15. What are we gonna. What are we gonna do tonight?

[Maria]

Everyone was tired.

[Robbie]

Everyone was tired. We got a menagerie of different foods. We just scrounged food, made sorills made. I think I ate a roll with butter and salt. That's what I ate. Last night.

[Andy]

We pillaged Charmaine, Rob's wife's lasagna that she had kept in the freezer for her kids arriving in the next week. I think we got a hold of that. Rob let us know that he wasn't so chuffed about it this morning.

[Robbie]

Oh, really?

[Andy]

Yeah. He said, vincent's gonna drive back with a lasagna in the coming week.

[Robbie]

And so then we had our cheaters. We were like, man, amazing. But we still had the chopper pilot, we still had the vets, and we decided, all right, let's go, let's go finish the job. And the mother's collar was at like 17% battery or something, so they wanted to change the collar. So let's get the mothers knocked down too, and let's do it all. So we all woke up. 4:30. 5ish. 5:30. We were driving all the way back to where we were. And you guys took off at. Oh, no. 4:30. We were rolling. Yeah.

[Andy]

You guys drove off. 4:30. We were planning to take off at 5:00 o' clock to the dark, but we didn't get the prin until about 20 past five again.

[Robbie]

That's right, that's right.

[Andy]

Got put at 20 past five, flew straight in and literally found the cats, like, exactly on the pin and just got to work.

[Robbie]

And everything did the same thing.

[Andy]

Well, everything just.

[Robbie]

They weren't messed up from the night before.

[Andy]

No, they. They were, I think, because they had the kill before, they were sticking around. And I think they also kind of went back to the last place that the. The siblings were at, so they were hunkered down there. And we were right in the corner of the reserve, so luckily. And. And that had been burnt from a fire. A wildfire that had come over from the neighbor.

[Robbie]

Yeah.

[Andy]

So if you can imagine the landscape, there's like, there's no grass. The ground is kind of that, like, scorched black color.

[Robbie]

Yep.

[Andy]

Which is all in our favor. We were in a corner. So we were about a kilometer from a fence line either side.

[Maria]

Yeah.

[Andy]

So we could just use the. The corner to. To shepherd the cats that we were darting into the corner so that we could control them better. And everything just went to plan. I think we did one of the sub adults first.

[Robbie]

Yep. The first sub adult hit the ground.

[Maria]

Yeah. So Dart was in first animal, then eight minutes later, another one. And 13 minutes later, from the first start, another one.

[Robbie]

So the remaining three all tagged in 20 minutes. And the first one goes on the ground. We're all positioned. And then Chad said to me, hey, you need to take your vehicle down this road, make a right onto the fence line, and go on the other side of us on the fence. I'm like, okay, okay. So I'm rolling hard, hard, hard, fast. I drive, I'M driving on the fence line. I'm looking at the chopper. Can see the chopper. There's the chopper. There's the chopper. And you're hovering like you hovered on the first cheetah the night before. So I'm like. And I have no comms. I've got no comms to you. I've got no comms to anybody. And so I'm like, is he wanting me to come there? You want me to come there? And I was like, okay, I'm coming. So I start driving into the bush. And you come. The helicopter comes to me. Pins pivots towards me. You're in the back of the bush vehicle, literally gesticulating. Get the out of here. Just push. Get out of here.

[Andy]

I was more worried about the tires on my truck getting slashed in the bush. So I was like, hey, Rob, careful driver. We don't need you here, man. Just stay on the road.

[Robbie]

So go back on the road. And so you at the top, it goes back. Little do I know. I think all three dots are in. And you're just, like pushing cheetahs. Right? So I park my vehicle, and I look down the road. I'm like, what the hell's on the road? I look and I try and zoom in with my phone. I take video, I take photos. I zoom in, and then I take the photo, and I zoom in more, and there's this black, sleek shape. And I said, that's a cheetah. Oh, man, they're looking for this cheetah. And so I stop the vehicle. I get up, I get out onto the roof of the vehicle. I've got my orange.

[Andy]

Bright orange bomb.

[Robbie]

Bright orange, not bomber jacket, everly puffy. And I'm. I'm like waving my arms like the Michelin man. I'm Michelin. I stand waving, waving, waving. And then I stop waving, and I. And I like aircraft direct. She's down there. She's down there. And I'm like, why are they not looking at me? Come on. Come over here. Well, then I see the tower slowly pushing, pushing, pushing. I was like, okay, they're going to see this cheetah now. Then I see another cheetah pop out of the bush.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

I was like, oh, yeah.

[Andy]

It was just. It was just too perfect, you know, I think we had. Rob collected the first cat, and then the second and third. We managed to get to sleep on the road on the fence line.

[Robbie]

Yep. And you'd landed the chopper. You started walking towards me. I moved the vehicle closer. I got up. I got out of my vehicle, walked to the cat that was closest to me and that was that. It was 6:45 in the morning and.

[Maria]

We had three cheetah in the back of the bucky.

[Andy]

Three.

[Robbie]

So you cheetah in the back of the bucky. We didn't put them in crates because we were just. Everything was moving so smoothly. Worked them straight to the boma.

[Maria]

Yeah, it was cold still. Not, not cold. It was starting to get warm. But the animals temperature was okay.

[Robbie]

Yep.

[Maria]

And so we just prolonged anesthesia and drove straight to the Boma.

[Robbie]

Then we put him in the boma. You guys reversed the drug? Yeah, Yep.

[Andy]

And I joined up with the three.

[Robbie]

From the afternoon and we passed the Kalahari boys in their boma. They were all sitting like a dog, curiously curious, just looking. Hey, how's it going? Not bombing around like you saw them the last time?

[Andy]

No, nothing like it. Nicely tranquilized the way we needed them to be.

[Robbie]

And so yeah, now we're podcasting. We've been podcasting for probably an hour and a half, hour 45, probably an hour and a half at this point. And we've been driving back from literally the middle of friggin nowhere, Kalahari, back to Royburg and Olympopa.

[Andy]

Yeah, but what a, what a weekend. You know, I think to, to go through those highs and lows of, you know, struggling in the, in the one boma with tricky cats, but getting them loaded successfully and having that sense of accomplishment, then getting stuck on the road to arriving basically when the sun's coming up already and you gotta start in an hour to not finding them because you don't have a sat pin, to then having complete luck and success that afternoon and the next morning. It's just a roller coaster of emotion. And just to be a part of it is also very, very special, I think, for everyone involved.

[Maria]

Yeah, definitely. I think, you know, a lot of people sometimes ask us, you know, how do you like this is, do you do this for a living? Really?

[Robbie]

Yeah, exactly.

[Maria]

And, and, and we feel the same way, you know, even though sometimes, you know, you start getting experience with, you know, a certain situation and maybe you do it a couple of times, doesn't mean anything. I think every time is the first time and every experience is different and every team is different. And communication, I think it's key in every procedure like this and trusting the people that you're working with. And I think, you know, we made a hell of a team this weekend. And you work together and to the highs and lows and. Yeah, and we achieved what was planned and every animal was safe. And I think that's the ultimate goal.

[Robbie]

Yeah. So the only down it could be now we're, you know, 45 minutes from home. We're going to check in on that. Yeah, that first cheetah that was mauled.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

So what's going to be your assessment? What, talk me through, like, what's going to happen here?

[Andy]

So we're going to have to make a pragmatic assessment, firstly on how bad his infection is going to be, um, and if he's going to be able to fight that. But then also how, how bad the damage is to his.

[Robbie]

How would you know what the level of infection is?

[Andy]

So, I mean, something like that. We're going to see if there's a lot of pus and exudate coming out.

[Maria]

Of the wounds, taking a temperature and doing a blood smear.

[Robbie]

Okay.

[Maria]

And bloods are things that you can also do to assess that.

[Robbie]

Okay.

[Maria]

But yeah, assessing the wound here is, you know, critical. Yeah, just the damage and the damage just, you know, wound healing is, is something that takes long depending on the wound and the top of the wound. And it's, it's quite complex and we just gonna have to assess the general state of the cheetah, but also the wound in itself.

[Andy]

You know, with BART wounds, you know, you get a little hole on the skin and, oh, that doesn't look so bad. But the damage that it's done underneath it can actually be really, really severe and extensive. So we've got to see what's, what's happened with the muscles underneath and, and just see if this cat's got a chance to, to survive or not and see if, if, if pushing it to survive is the right decision. Yeah. And yeah, we'll hopefully make the right one. And hopefully it's a positive, positive visual when we get to him this afternoon and we can put him through.

[Robbie]

And then we've had some positive news. He's up, he's moved, he's fed a.

[Andy]

Little bit, he's mobile, he's eating, he's like showing normal behavior. But these cats are also tough. You know, they, they've got an amazing ability to deal with a challenge like this. So we, we just hope to see that he's, he's doing well and we can continue in the positive vein that we've had the last sort of 24, 48 hours.

[Robbie]

Well, I appreciate you guys, I appreciate the hospitality that you've given and the time that you've dedicated. Obviously you work whenever you need to, but we've taken up a weekend of your time and a full day of your normal work schedule.

[Andy]

I don't think either of us would have missed it for the world. We're suits are like just yes, we work with animals but like I think the team and the bonds that you made this weekend were like definitely unforgettable. And yeah, to have you guys involved and be involved with your project is just epic. Totally agree. Thanks for doing it.

[Maria]

We appreciate the opportunity and just this feeling of, you know, being part of something way bigger than ourselves.

[Robbie]

Well, it's a possibility, right? And there's going to be logistical challenges and there's going to be heartache and there's going to be some tragedy and there's going to be successes and there's going to be highs and that just comes with doing something epic.

[Maria]

Yeah.

[Robbie]

Yeah.

[Andy]

If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

[Robbie]

Eh? I heard that a couple of times the last three days. Well, I appreciate you both. Thank you.

[Andy]

Thanks.

[Robbie]

And I will definitely get another update maybe as we go into the project and you know, you guys have maybe visited the area where the cheaters are being relocated and had a look and seen the cheetahs that, you know, you captured. That would be pretty awesome.

[Maria]

That would be absolutely amazing.

[Robbie]

Can't wait. Well, that's it for today. I appreciate you listening. As always, leave a review, share it with your friends, and most importantly, do what's right to convey the truth around hunting Want to plan your next fishing trip without the hassle? FishingBooker.com is the best way to find and book a fishing charter anywhere in the world. Whether you're chasing trophy fish or just looking for a family day on the water, fishingbooker makes it simple, fast and secure. With thousands of experienced guides, verified reviews and 247 customer support, FishingBooker takes the guesswork out of planning. Visit fishingbooker.com and book your trip today. FishingBooker Fishing trips made Easy hey guys.

[Maria]

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