The lion has been considered locally extinct in Gabon for over 20 years, but Priscila Peralta-Aguilar and her colleagues at Panthera, the world’s leading NGO in wild cats’ conservation, are working on restoring the species in Gabon.
Priscila Peralta-Aguilar is currently the wildlife health & human-wildlife coexistence coordinator at Panthera, and earlier this year, she attended the Wildlife Capture School in Zimbabwe to further develop her skills in the safe and correct techniques of darting and immobilizing African wildlife.
“Before arriving in Gabon, I knew that I had to train myself in correct and safe methods for capturing African wildlife. Since there are no lions in the Peruvian Amazon, my experience with physical-chemical restraint of African species was nonexistent, and I am fully aware that our profession is a never-ending learning process, where I am always humbly willing to learn from my colleagues across the different branches where our profession is developed."
"To achieve this, I applied for the Brian Miller Memorial Bursary from Wildlife Vets International, and I am very grateful to have been awarded one of the grants. Thanks to their support, along with the Lion Recovery Fund, I was able to attend a wildlife capture course in Zimbabwe,” she says.
A dream comes true
During this experience, she had the opportunity to capture her first lioness, marking an exciting milestone in her career as a lion conservationist veterinarian.
“It was a very productive ten-day course, days full of learning, with extensive lectures and hands-on application of all the theory. I got into the lion group, and Dr. Carl-Heinz Moeller selected me to dart my first lioness - she needed to have her GPS collar removed. I darted her at around 6 PM and treated her in the best way. It was a dream come true, I was full of tears afterwards, and couldn’t believe that it was real and that I will be doing this going forward within the Plateaux Batéké National Park,” she says.
Priscila Peralta-Aguilar will be responsible for monitoring the health of the first generation of lions that will be brought to the Plateaux Batéké National Park, aiming to restore the species' population in Gabon.
Easy-to-handle rifle
Having moved from using a handcrafted blowpipe she used to capture her first jaguar in the Amazon, Priscila now has the chance to use a dart gun to perform her work more efficiently and accurately. She chose the DANiNJECT rifle due to its light weight and ease of handling.
"I am short, and although I usually carry a lot of weight when working in the field, I prefer this rifle because its lightweight design allows me to handle it quickly and comfortably and of course run fast to the anesthetized lions, if necessary," she says.
Photo credit: Hugo Curotto
