Zaza

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ZAZA CHARACTER

Zaza injured in a fight: 12 January 2008

It is early in the morning at Shayamanzi. The moon is still shining brightly. Zaza, a beautiful female leopard sits close to me in a holding cage. While listening to her soft grumbling, I wonder how many leopards die annually. Why would hunters and game farmers really want to exterminate these beautiful cats?

Which million year old secrets are being hidden in those yellow-green eyes?

Who really knows the answers to these questions?

Since 1 September 1989, Shayamanzi has been searching for answers to help solve the mystery surrounding these predators. Yes, they are predators, which still manage to survive. How they manage to survive is also a part of the mystery. They have to eat. They have been surviving long before humans arrived. Yes, man reigns over the earth and its animals, but does this mean that we have the right to simply remove these cats from the globe? If it weren't for the survival instinct of these cats and their successful ability to evade, elude and shun humans, they might have become extinct long ago.

Leopards live a high-risk life. They are loners and solo hunters. If they become injured during a hunt in such a way that prevents them from hunting, it may mean their death. Other predators (e.g. lions and hyenas) want to steal their prey – fortunately their ability to climb trees, and their own strength are benefits that assist them in their fight for survival.

Snakes and other predators are often responsible for a high mortality rate among leopard cubs. The highest risk, however, remains humans. It is exceptionally rare for a game farmer to see a leopard on his farm in the bushveld even once in ten years. Nevertheless, it is claimed that the bushveld draws the most leopards in the world. It is as if the leopard can sense the human danger and communicates it very efficiently to the rest of the species. It is reasonably clear that the territories of leopards are mostly in the mountains, bush and river banks, areas where humans find it difficult to traverse. Most of their secrets are also hidden here.

Although leopards can kill the largest, strongest man in an instant, they leave humans alone. Why can't humans leave them alone too? How long will it be until the leopard's patience wears out and the leopard starts taking out the human enemy one by one? Man-eating leopards and tigers in India are not rare anymore.

With all these questions buzzing through my head, it is strange, even unnerving and eerie to stand here next to her, preparing to take ZaZa to Onderstepoort for an operation to fix her upper right canine.

I wonder if she can sense that she has been captured to help her and not to hurt her. If it wasn't such a cold morning causing one's eyes to water, I could have sworn that there was a tear in my eye, a tear of sorrow, but also of a strange satisfaction. I experience an incredibly good and warm feeling as I stand here as a human being, usually the enemy, but this time here to help rather than hurt. These real situations affect a person’s entire being.

The long road from Shayamanzi to Pretoria starts early and I drive slowly. Her cage is on the trailer and all sides are closed. It is nice and cool and I would like to arrive at Onderstepoort before the sun makes her cage too hot.

Halfway on the highway between Nylstroom and Pretoria two of the cage's plates blow away and disappear in the long grass. I stop, Zaza calmly looks at me, maybe the wind blowing through the cage offers some coolness.

Very soon other motorists detect the leopard in its cage. They slow down to look into the cage, then I drive even more slowly to put them off. And so we drive, intermittently adjusting the speed, to Onderstepoort.

I drive down a long passage to the back of the operating theatre where she will be helped. Dr Steenkamp is there to to anaesthetise her immediately. A horse that is being led down the passage, stops in her tracks when she smells the leopard. How does the horse know? Is it instinct? She has respect, even fear and stands still. With some effort, and her head turned away, she passes.

The people around the cage show as much respect for Zaza, who becomes edgy. With a long pipe injection needle Dr Steenkamp injects her. Zaza is put onto a trolley and pushed to the operating theatre.

Dr Steenkamp tells me that the operation has attracted much attention as it will be the first root canal operation on a leopard in Onderstepoort's history. For him, as a veterinarian-dentist-specialist, it is a major moment. And almost incidentally, he tells me there is a lot of media attention, from among others "Beeld" and Pretoria News.

Suddenly we are surrounded by people and cameras. I am assaulted by a barrage of questions. I wasn't really prepared for this media event and try to answer the press's difficult questions with leopard patience and leopard caution.

The operating theatre is full of people – students, staff, the media and I all want to watch the operation. Dr Steenkamp invites me to stand next to him with my video camera to record the whole operation on high definition film. It must be uncomfortable for the doctor to work with all the people and clicking cameras photographing every movement. The canine root canal operation on a leopard is a first for Onderstepoort.

Little did Zaza realise that the fight she had with her sister in Camp 1 would render her "film star" status.

Although the two sisters have shared a whole life (+/- 10 years) in a camp in the northern part of the country, and have also been together in a camp at Shayamanzi, they did engage in their female pranks every two months or so. The fight was not about food, but rather about catching the eye of a large, wild male leopard that circles the Leopard Kingdom camps.

Unfortunately the fight did not go well for Zaza. Zaza and Ziana are sisters of the same age and were moved to Shayamanzi by a nature conservation organisation in March 2007. Zaza is the somewhat larger and calmer sister. Ziana, the smaller and more agile sister is definitely the more wicked of the two.

Ziana got hold of Zaza on her head and bit deep holes into it. One of her canines made a large hole just below Zaza's ear. Dr Steenkamp is worried that the nerves have been damaged, as her lips were hanging. He said if she did not recover within two weeks it would mean that she has probably suffered permanent damage.

The upper right canine was broken badly in the gum. I was worried that it would turn into an infection as leopards eat anything, fresh or rotten.

A leopard on an operating table is not the easiest of patients, especially if the leopard is not a regular patient.

Zaza was already anaesthetised in her cage out in the passage. Decisions have to be made quickly and accurately. This patient will not thank the medical team when she wakes up – she will devour them.