Welcoming Pacou
But Pacou is a waterbuck that was brought to us back in April. We raised bottle-fed him and did everything we could to save him. Raising antelope is a big task that requires a lot of time and effort and that doesn’t always have a happy ending. If you’d like to see how exactly Pacou was cared for, you can watch this video:
Obviously, Pacou kept growing and as waterbuck get very big (their horns can grow up to 1m long!) So, it was time to give him a new home. Pacou is very friendly and would often join our volunteers on after-work walks, but we knew that it wasn’t fair to keep him here as we have no other waterbuck on our reserve.
On the morning of January 14th, a group of volunteers left very early in the morning to take Pacou on a special walk. Our dogs joined the walk as Pacou likes to play with them and follow them.
The volunteers and Pacou walked to our neighboring farm, Tangata, where they do have lots of waterbuck that our (not so) little Pacou could join. After he was taken through the gate, the volunteers spread out and Pacou followed Michèle. Together with Sam from Tangata, the smaller group drove to a nearby waterhole with Pacou walking right next to them. They thought that it might be a good idea for Pacou to get to know his new environment, so we took him to the sable camp.
As soon as Pacou smelled the other animals, he ran off to go introduce himself. He did not look back and seemed to be having the time of his life. Pacou will spend the next few weeks in the sable camp. Once he’s more confident, we will let him out of the camp to roam freely on the reserve.
We are extremely happy with how smooth this release went. We hope that Pacou will grow up to be an incredibly majestic waterbuck! Bye, Pacou!