or and his antelope
frican antelope was the easiest part of getting them to University Park.
them in Naples, Italy, for the
requisite 60 days. Since
regulations stipulated, that wild
ruminants could only be exported
to zoological parks, Philadelphia
Zoo officials agreed to accept
Cowan’s stock. Offspring of the
original animals could then be
legally transferred to Penn State.
When the Naples quarantine
period had passed, the antelope
were shipped to Clifton, N.J., to
endure an additional 30-day
quarantine. At the termination of
this quarantine, the 16 surviving
animals finally arrived in
Philadelphia, but the long awaited
antelope progeny would never
reach the university. After 3%
years, all but four of the original
antelope had died, and no offspring
had been produced. Convinced that
he, himself, could successfully
raise the duikers, the tireless
professor planned a new attack.
“So I worked on the USDA to
approve the Penn State deer pens
as a zoological park, and in
January of 1981, approval came
through,” he recounts.
Two months later, Cowan was
back in Africa, and an un
derstanding parks board granted
him permission to capture 30 more
antelope. Discovering that he was
no longer permitted to take
animals at the original capture
site, Cowan worked in 15 different
locations during April and May
before capturing 33 animals and
donating several to the East
London Zoo. But once again,
government regulations conspired
to stand in his way.
Cowan soon found that the
Italians had rewritten their
quarantine regulations, making it
impossible for him to use the
Naples station. Appeals to other
DV
TLER
FFERING A
SCOUNT
For Details And
BIG!
0...
RI-STATE marine phic builders
DIST. INC. 435 King Street
Route 256 Pottstown, PA 19464
Deale, MD 20751 PH 215-582-4050
PH 301-867-1447
seller building ( ? uill four counties
SYSTEMS INC. CONSTRUCTION CO. CONTRACTOR. INC
RD # 1 Box 203 u P ° Bo * ® 2 f®,, „ R.D., Box 816
Lewisburg, PA 17837 ~U Z B ; f Coalport, PA 16627
p H 717-524-0568 PH: 717-545-7527 PH; 814-672-5751
USDA-approved quarantine
stations in South Africa, Kenya
and Germany produced similar
results. With no way to turn,
Cowan deposited all his animals in
the East London Zoo, and went
home to plan his strategy.
One glimmer of hope remained.
Though the owner of the South
African quarantine station located
at Walvis Bay had refused to
quarantine Cowan’s animals
because they were too few in
number to warrant manning the
station, the professor had a dif
ferent proposition. Suppose he,
himself, would rent the facilities
and remain at the station for the
60-day period?
And so, with the support of the
University’s Dean of the College of
Agriculture, Sam Smith, Dr.
Cowan struck an agreement with
the quarantine station’s owner. He
would quarantine his own animals
for two months at a cost of $5,000.
Upon crossing the desert to the
quarantine station, Cowan found it
to be in deplorable condition, with
no electricity or water, and layers
of old animal dung covered by
drifting sand. Resolving to make
the best of a bad situation, he sent
the required blood samples to the
National Animal Disease
Laboratory in Plum Island, N.Y.,
and set up housekeeping in his 12-
foot camping trailer for the
duration of the quarantine.
But an end to the professor’s
ordeal was not yet in the cards.
Two days before Christmas, 1981,
he received word that two of his
animals had tested positive for
rinderpest, a disease that had
supposedly been eradicated in
Africa in 1904. His instructions
were ,to remove the two suspect
antelope, clean and sanitize the
f’butler
N I
BIG CASH & CARRY WAREHOUSE
rmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmurn
v 1 BUTLER MFG. CO. ■
— I Attn p E Hess %BUTLERJ> I
■ P O Box 337, Oxford PA 19363 |
" I'm interested in more information on Butler products ■
® □ Buildings □ Dryers □ Feed Bins □ Bins -
| □ Grain Legs ■
| Name |
W.R. MOODY,
CONTRACTOR
113 Walnut Lane
West Newton, PA 15089
PH: 412-872-6804
facilities and remain for an ad
ditional 60-day quarantine period.
At the end of this second
quarantine period, the University
was required to fly a veterinarian
from the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service headquarters in
Hyattsville, Md., to Walvis Bay.
The APHIS veterinarian then
accompanied Cowan and his
animals from the quarantine
station, to Johannesburg, and then
on to New York.
The professor’s precious ship
ment reached U.S. soil on March
12, 1982. Finally, after an ad
ditional 30-day stateside
i
the world's smallest antelope. But despite their small size,
efforts by Penn State’s Dr. Robert Cowan to import the
African antelope for forage research turned into a king-size
undertaking.
GRAINS BINS, GRAIN LEGS, KAN-SUN
PRICES FROM BUTLER -
The #1 Bin Company
quarantine had ended, the antelope
reached University Park in April,
nearly seven years after Dr.
Cowan’s introduction to the species
at the Pretoria Zoo. Counting
births, deaths, and culls since the
time that the animals began their
long journey from the East London
Zoo, a total of 18 antelope
remained: five males and 13
females.
Today the University’s herd
numbers 65, and reproduction, “is
going along optimally,” with some
females averaging one offspring
every seven months, reports Dr.
Cowan.
BINTRIM BUILDERS
204 Hoover Road
Newcastle, PA 16101
PH. 412-924-2698
BEAVERCREEK
LANDSCAPING CONST.
CO.
P.O. Box 151
Chestertown, MD 21620
PH: 301-778-4110
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 20,1984—A23
I
BUTLER 8-17-15 K AN-SUN
DRYERS CONTINUOUS FLOW DRYER
| Address
| County
I City _
Phone
Though a small amount of forage
research is currently underway,
Cowan points out that the main
objective is to build herd size, since
Penn State’s token population
represents the only blue duikers
existing outside of Africa.
One way to assure the future of
the antelope is to establish
populations at different locations.
This is a phase of “project duiker”
that will hopefully go smoothly
since the University currently has
a waiting list of animal scientists,
agronomists and plant breeders
who, “can’t wait to get ahold of
them,” says Dr. Cowan. To that
end, Cowan will be accompanying
12 duikers south next week to
establish a second population at
North Carolina State University.
With this mission accomplished,
Penn State’s retired professor
emeritus of animal nutrition will
be off to New Zealand for some
long overdue rest and relaxation.
Admittedly though, he’ll still be
sleeping with one eye open.
“I won’t rest easy until we have
hundreds of duikers established in
several locations,” Dr. Cowan
asserts.
And it’s not difficult to un
derstand why.
BEST PRICE
EVER
Price Includes Delivery
And Start Up
(Include area code)
HEAD
LANCASTER
FARMING
FOR COMPLETE
AND
UP-TO-DATE
MARKET
REPORTS
LF _
State.