Bush baby returns home after unexpected journey to Cape Town aboard festival truck

Thanks to the coordinated efforts of several animal welfare organisations, a lesser bush baby named Maurice has safely returned to Johannesburg after accidentally hitching a ride to Cape Town aboard a truck departing from a festival.

Maurice, along with his family, lives on an organic fruit and vegetable farm in Muldersdrift, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. 

The little furry animal was found in the back of a truck owned by a logistics company, following a festival on the farm earlier this month.

When they found him in a box filled with bunting, the logistics company called the Cape of Good Hope SPCA, who picked up Maurice. 

He was brought straight to their Cape of Good Hope SPCA’s Wildlife Unit, where their veterinary team gave him a full check-up. 

Apart from a slightly confused expression and an appetite to match his energy, he was in excellent health.

The SPCA explained that with help from the Johannesburg Wildlife Vet and considering the festival location, they were able to pinpoint the colony Maurice had strayed from near Fourways.

CapeNature added that they received a call from a company indicating that they had found a lemur, which was later identified as a bushbaby (Galago senegalensis) in one of the boxes its trucks dropped off at the warehouse on September 18.

“The truck had departed from Muldersdrift where the company held an event near a forest and the company suspected that that was the only area where it might have climbed on as the cargo area was not opened again until the boxes were offloaded at their Montague Gardens warehouse.” 

Once CapeNature was informed by the SPCA that the bushbaby was healthy, it contacted the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD) over whether they would be able to transport the bushbaby back to Gauteng. 

“While waiting to hear back from GDARD, the SPCA informed CapeNature that the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital had offered to export the bushbaby back to Gauteng and release it near the suspected site where the event was hosted by the company. CapeNature issued the necessary permit, and the bushbaby flew back to Johannesburg on Tuesday. It was kept under observation by Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital for 48 hrs and will be released back to its original site on Friday.” 

Wendy Wilson, Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital operations and legal lead explained the urgency for him to get home: “He is not allowed to be in the Western Cape because they don’t occur in the Western Cape so not only would he be very unhappy, he would not be able to thrive. Then we had to come up with a plan to get him back."

“A very passionate veterinarian called Dr Fatima she really fought hard for Maurice to be repatriated back up to Gauteng and to his family. She got hold of us, we’ve got a good relationship with Cape of Good Hope SPCA and CapeNature and little Maurice was issued a permit and permission to return, which is quite unprecedented. Usually people would say it's just a bush baby and either euthanise it or put it in captivity. They are quite energetic, they have extended families, they have extended territories. So to keep him in a cage for the rest of his life or lose his life just because he ended up in the wrong truck, would be very very sad. It’s really nice when everybody can work together and come up with such a nice outcome. Impact for Wildlife, which is an NGO, arranged a flight on Airlink for Maurice."

Cape Times