June 27, 2005 | Tiffany Ogunsanya
"Today has been very interesting because I helped dart and transport an African buffalo."

Today (June 27) has been very interesting because I helped dart and transport a African buffalo. All the adult buffalo, including five bulls, were in a small holding pen. They had really large horns. They were very aggressive toward other animals in their pen.

Andre and his crew darted the largest bulls in the pen. They kind of staggered around with the darts in their side. They lean on other animals before they fall over. Once the buffalo were down, Andre and his crew worked quickly to load the bulls onto a stretcher and then into Andre’s truck one at a time. The animal's eyes were covered with a towel during transport. I was able to give one bull a shot in the ear during recovery to wake the bull up.

After a wonderful brunch of French toast and fried liver, Andre taught us how to prepare a tranquilizer dart. I learned that the large darts only can be used on large species. If used on small species the large dart will penetrate the bone and harm the animal. Andre’s darts are easy to put together and the price is pretty reasonable. We each got a turn of shooting at a target – a rug with faces on it. We shot the target with a gun that was light and easy to hold in one hand. I shot the gun twice and hit the target.

This was second day I worked with water buffalo. I have better understanding of the money and manpower that goes into raising buffalo and managing a farm. There's a lot of money to be made from buffalo. I gained respect for Andre and his team. You have to know what you're doing. I think I learned some useful techniques that I can apply to wildlife biology. I’m having a great time.