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History of Moholohlo |
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 The
Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre was established in 1991. A
businessman from Pretoria in South Africa, Mr Strijdom, owns the farm on
which the Centre is situated, and he in turn asked Brian Jones to
establish and run the rehabilitation centre for him. Brian already had a
Crowned Eagle in his possession and his reputation for the work he did
with wild animals had spread rapidly. Brian Jones has been helping and
caring for injured and orphaned animals from the age of four and thus he
brought a great deal of knowledge and experience to the establishment of
this rehabilitation centre
Very soon a variety of animals
were being brought to him that were either orphaned, injured or poisoned
and in need of help. The plight of Africa’s animals and our natural
system has always been the main concern at Moholoholo and the philosophy
is that awareness must be spread if we are to save our wildlife.
With Mr Strijdom’s dedicated
support the Centre has expanded tremendously over the years and as a
result Brian has, on numerous occasions, been invited to give talks all
over the country and in various states in the USA to spread the message
and inform people of the predicament our wildlife faces today.
In 2003 Dr Ian Player nominated
Brian Jones for the Terra Nova Award and Moholoholo’s work has been
featured in many TV programmes and series, such as ‘Wild Orphans’, which
have been screened far and wide including on the National Geographic
Channel.
At Moholoholo we are
often faced with the difficult decision of what to do with an injured or
poisoned animal which will not be able to be released back into the
wild. As a result, we have a number of ‘permanent residents’ that reside
at the centre at our own cost and are used as ‘ambassadors’ for their
species. Members of the public are therefore able to get an ‘up close
and personal’ experience of these incredible creatures, while we have
the ability to practically demonstrate to the public the problems that
wildlife is facing as well as being able to share information about each
animal here at the Centre. Moholoholo receives 1 000 school children and
adults on average per month. They visit the Rehabilitation Centre where
they attend a guided tour during which they hear about these problems
and the challenges associated with conservation and habitat protection.
We often receive calls
which require Brian to go out and rescue animals such as baby rhinos
that have been abandoned by their mothers, or leopards, cheetah and
hyena that have been hit by cars, caught in snares or poisoned. The
costs involved in caring for these animals are absorbed by Moholoholo in
an attempt to convey the message that it is not necessary to shoot such
animals, but that they can, in fact, recover after treatment and be
relocated at no inconvenience to the inhabitants of the area.
Moholoholo is also
actively involved in ‘problem animal’ control on farms and in tribal
areas. The animals are removed from the area where they are unwanted and
relocated to an area where they are welcome. This too is done at
Moholoholo’s expense and is primarily done to save them from an often
painful and gruesome demise.
We are involved in a research
forum which investigates the movement of leopards. To date we have
captured and collared a number of leopards for this research and the
results have been astounding. We are often called to remove a ‘problem
leopard’ and we use such opportunities to gain more information on the
species. Where funds allow this, we can release them fitted with GPS
collars.
Our research also extends to a
number of vulture species. We have tagged and released hundreds of
vultures whose movements are subsequently monitored. Many vultures are
brought to us due to poisoning and we have been able to fit tracking
harnesses to a few before releasing them – we have been astounded by the
range of some of their movements.
Here at Moholoholo we run a
successful Serval breeding programme. In the Eastern Cape, Nature
Conservation officials claimed Servals had become extinct in the area
about 80 years ago and were beyond redemption. However, we have released
69 Servals there over the past eight years – 19 in the Shamwari Nature
Reserve alone.
The main aim of our
efforts is to raise awareness regarding our dying environment, not only
in our own country but worldwide. Hopefully, when the world sees the
Rehabilitation Centre on their TV screens, or when they visit our
venues, they too might recognise that they have a problem in their own
countries and that the wildlife of this world depends on humans to speak
out on their behalf.
Source: official web of
Moholoholo (2015)
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