Saving the Bushbabies of Fourways has always been a cause close to the hearts of Surita Volland and Dirk Engelbrecht so whenever they get a call, they answer!
Fourways, Johannesburg (07 October 2022) – Home owner Natalie Moises was recently having her roof redone when the contractors found a lesser bushbaby nest. She quickly called the team at “Save the Fourways Bushbabies” to find out what to do next.
The nest contained three tiny, week-old babies as well as two adult females. The work was haulted and everyone asked to back away from the nest while they waited for Dirk Engelbrecht to arrive to assess the situation. Bushbabies are nocturnal so them being exposed to the daylight would have been quite a shock. Thankfully, it appeared that the two adults started moving the babies off to another place of safety while Dirk made his way to the home.
“The CEO of Save the Fourways Bushbabies, Surita, contacted Dirk Engelbrecht, a co-director and her counterpart at Wild Serve to help assess the immediate needs of the small primates.
Since eye witnesses reported earlier seeing one female take a baby and transfer it to one of the adjacent trees it was important not to lose track of the babies and work to trace the other while preserving the females’ access. Animal moms always know whats best!”
They checked every inch of the roof to make sure they didn’t miss any babies. Thankfully, they double checked as one final one was found.
“A large stretch of tiles were carefully removed and one baby was found. Sections before and after were triple checked to make sure no babies were missed and during this process an adult was spotted nearby. It seemed she was on her way back from the trees to collect the last baby. This was a very welcome discovery.
The baby that was found was placed in an open, padded basket close to the trees and all humans back-tracked out of sight. Dirk hid nearby to confirm the re-union. Bushbabies are very attentive with strong maternal instincts and so it took only 2-3 minutes once the mother heard the baby call for her to make her way down and gently encourage the baby to latch on. After seeing her alight we turned our eyes away happy to give them their privacy back, confident that two tiny pairs of hands would either make a new nest or return to the renovated roof if they found it was still suitable.
We would like to thank Natalie Moises and Margit Moises for their deep concern and for caring so much for our Bushbabies of the area.
Please help us by making a donation to #SaveTheFourwaysBushbabies”
The team work tirelessly to save as many of the bushbabies as possible. In the past they have worked with new developers to make sure the correct surveys are done and essential habitat is retained.
You can support their efforts by reaching out via Facebook here.
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