Nursing a young warrior

One of the aspects that makes Nitani so different from most private game reserves is the attention paid to the smaller animals.

There are several projects at Nitani, overseen by Ade Pinchen, that are researching what the Nitani folk like to call 'the Small Five' – an array of smaller, rarely seen but exotic animals – caracal, serval, African wildcat, aardwolf and aardvark.

At the moment Ade is working on a programme to build the serval population by breeding and then releasing the young back into the wild. Crucial to the programme is a young male called Impi (the Zulu word for Warrior).

Impi is ensconced at the Pinchen’s home, while the programme awaits the arrival of female serval. He alternates between a large exercise pen and a very comfortable cottage, previously used by tourists. In the evenings he insists on leaving these confines and joining them in the kitchen while they have supper (see previous story for picture of Impi terrifying a hapless visiting journalist).

Recently, while hunting a lizard, he fell from the kitchen beams and hurt his back on one of the kitchen counters. The fall left partly paralysed and meant for Shane and Ade many nights sleeping on the kitchen floor with Impi, nursing him back to health. Nursing a wild serval, no matter how well-disposed he might theoretically be, is a dangerous business, as is attested to by the various claw-marks and bites on the Pinchens.

Impi has also been receiving extensive daily physiotherapy from Ade and is now slowly clawing his way back to health. He can now walk again and remains as curious as ever, as this exploratory foray into the dishwasher shows.