 |
News
l March 2008 |
|
|
|
| |
Galadriel
wins the Battle for her Life
A Wild Horse filly which lost her mother seems
to have won the battle against almost certain death. Biologist
Dr Telané Greyling noticed the filly without her
mother for the first time in mid-November 2007. She estimated
that she was about six weeks old at that time. “The
ribs were sticking out painfully and the stomach was bloated
– sure signs of malnutrition, the lack of mother’s
milk”, the biologist says. Much to her surprise
she saw the filly again during her latest visit in mid-March
– looking totally normal. “When my friend
saw the filly in November she wished for a guardian angel
for her and named her Galadriel, after the Queen of the
Elves in Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”,
Greyling explains with a smile, “perhaps it really
helped”. On a more serious note she adds: “The
plains around Garub had good rains and there is fresh
grass everywhere. Galadriel is over the worst now and
stands a good chance to survive. Nevertheless she will
remain smaller than other foals her age which stay with
their mothers until they are weaned at about 10 to 12
months old.”
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Filly 'Galadriel' and the 'bachelor'
stallion who took her under his wing, spotted in April
2008. Photo: Telané Greyling
|
|
|
| |
According to Greyling a total of 21 foals
were born last year and another 7 during the first quarter
of this year. On average it happens every two years that
a foal is separated from its mother. It happens when the
foal is asleep somewhere near the drinking trough at Garub
and the mother moves a few hundred metres further while
grazing. Then the foal wakes up, cannot find its mother
and eventually follows a different group. Mares rarely
have a very close relationship to their foals and ‘forget’
them within a day or two, says Greyling. During severe
droughts mares sometimes move on without consideration
for their foal – as if they were aware that the
foal would be unable to make it anyway. |
|
|
| |
If lost foals are younger than 4 months
they are usually doomed to die. Even fresh, nourishing
grass cannot replace a mare’s milk. The weaker the
foals become the more difficult it is for them to cover
the distances between the drinking trough and the grazing
area. At the trough they are at risk of getting knocked
over by other horses and sustaining injuries. Other mares
and groups rarely adopt lost foals and without their protection
they are easy prey for hyenas and jackals. |
|
|
| |
“Stallions which live alone, so-called
bachelors, often take lost foals under their wing”,
says Telané Greyling. “But obviously they
cannot nurse them. And usually they do not protect the
foal well enough against predators. Galadriel was lucky:
grazing was plentiful and she found a bachelor which takes
exceptionally good care of his charge – and apparently
keeps hyenas and jackals at bay, too.” |
|
|
|
© 2008 Nature Investments (Pty) Ltd |
|
|
|
|
- More pictures at www.namibhorses.com
|
|
|
|
