Porcupines to Polar Bears: Adventures of a Wildlife Veterinarian

Storyteller Jerry Haigh shares his adventures as a wildlife veterinarian with the University of Saskatchewan and coming from a clinic at the base of spectacular Mount Kenya in Africa to the flat lands of the Canadian prairies in Saskatchewan. He worked with wild animals such as moose, polar bears and even a toothless old lion: George the resident lion of the Forestry Farm Zoo, suddenly off his feed because a tooth infection, needed a couple of stainless steel crowns, accomplished by Jerry and his team of four dentists! His study of the best cocktail of drugs for immobilizing various species brought Jerry in contact with researchers of black, grizzly and polar bears, bison, moose and many others Where Men Walk with Moose, an episode of Mutual of Omahas Wild Kingdom, followed Jerry along with Bob Stewarts team of moose researchers from the Department of Natural Resources When the director of the Calgary Zoo needed dentistry for Foggy the Hippo, he turned to Jerry with his skill at immobilizing a wide variety of species and his ingenuity with a Gigli saw Jerry and his family were called upon to bottle raise and find other ingenious ways to save a black bear cub orphaned by an earthmover At the invitation of Ray Schweinsburg, polar bear biologist for the Northwest Territories, Haigh spent time at Pond Inlet (now Qikiqtaaluk) on the eastern shore of Baffin Island using his specialized techniques for animal immobilization and collecting samples for research on this iconic Canadian wild animal. And many more heart-warming and exciting stories from a time when being a wildlife veterinarian was a rare occupation!