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Left: Unloading of pallets by forklifts       ....... Pallets underway to quarantine station

When we arrived at Pietersburg we were shocked to realize that there were no trucks waiting at the airport after having been promised that they would definitely be waiting for the arrival of the plane.  The first flight arrived in the afternoon during November in the heat of the summer months.  We had to scramble to get everything organized and fortunately we managed to get hold of the trucks without a serious delay. 

We had to use forklifts to offload the pallets from the aircraft onto the trucks,  while the animals were still immobilized. Each pallet contained 5 animals. 

The animals were transported to the quarantine station where they were woken up after they had been immobilized for 11-12 hours.  The quarantine station was situated +/- 10km from the Pietersburg airport.
     
.....    Roan Antelope under quarantine             ........      Lichtenstein Hartebeest

The animals took to the food quite quickly as they were used to the antelope cubes and Lucerne.  They were immobilized and bled again after 21 days.  Once the results were negative we were ready for the auction and the animals were auctioned at the Jack Botes Hall in Pietersburg.

After the sale, the majority of the animals were distributed throughout South Africa, where they have, to date, bred to substantial numbers.  This was the start of a revolution in the rare game species industry, which is still one of the most viable branches in the agricultural industry. 

 
   Sable Antelope under quarantine 

During the sale of 1986, world record prices were obtained for Sable Antelope (R7000 in 1986). 

The Lichtenstein Hartebeast were not sold at the auction.  Before the auction however, 10 Lichenstein’s were sold to Kruger National Park and Dr. Kriek donated 5 animals to the park to boost their small population of Lichtensteins at that time.  Various private institutions and game ranches supported the sale and there was quite a lot of public interest. 

This operation was one of a number of operations completed by Dr. Johan Kriek and his team to secure the survival of the rare game species.  The animals bred well and is now out off danger of extinction. 
 
After the successful completion of the operation, Dr. Kriek started planning the next Malawi trip, which would be on a much bigger scale. 

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