New Patient

We've got a new patient. His name is Brompie and he arrived on Thursday afternoon. Pierre, Altus and Henk 3 found him next to the road, unable to walk. We've not yet been able to establish exactly what is wrong with Brompie but at least he's still alive and where there is life, there is hope. Brompie is a Ground Hornbill and my guess is that he is at least 14 months old. For those of you who don't speak Afrikaans - the Afrikaans word for a ground hornbill is a Bromvoel - from there the name Brom(pie) - the "pie" indicates small as opposed to large because if you take into account that ground hornbills take around 6 years to reach adulthood, he is still a baby! It is estimated that they live on average about 45 years but possibly up to 60 years or more in the wild. Oh and please - the "pie" is pronounced the same as "pea" and not pie as in steak and kidney.

As I obviously know nothing about caring for Brompie, I contacted Dee de Waal who is the Project Administrator/Handrearer of the Ground Hornbill Project at Mabula Private Game Reserve (one of South Africa's finest private game reserves situated about 2 hours' drive from Johannesburg in the Waterberg Mountains). Thanks Dee and Stephen (who is the vet that Dee contacted for some assistance with Brompie) for all your interest, help and advice. It is greatly appreciated.

Now, do yourself a favour and visit www.mabulagroundhornbillconservationproject.org.za. You will find some fascinating information there about ground hornbills and this very worthy project.