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A Bondi Vet out of Africa

The benevolent Dr. Chris Brown had no idea that the last vet to work on lions in an African lion sanctuary woke up during an operation and ripped into his shoulder.

In his African special to air this Sunday night Dr. Chris Brown operates on a lion at the request of a “lion whisperer” Kevin Richardson.

Richardson had Googled the Bondi Vet after seeing his videos online and issued an invitation for medical help. Brown couldn’t resist the offer and together with his camera crew headed for Johannesburg.

Working with the big cats in the wild was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. But it didn’t come without its fair share of memorable stories.

“The last guy he had out to help with the lions didn’t have the anesthetic right and the lion actually woke up too early, took a swipe at the vet’s shoulder and knocked out all his nerves and tendons. The guy hasn’t worked since,” says Brown.

“But he only told us that after we’d worked with the lions.

“In the show there’s a moment where I find that out, and it’s genuine, it’s not created.

“You get the occasional dog that might want to have a nibble but it gets a bit more real with a lion. They really let you know what they think about you if they don’t like you.”

While Brown isn’t a zoological veterinarian he is qualified in the same Degree. Operating his practice as a generalist veterinarian, he says, suits the TEN series which is now in its third season.

He spent two weeks in South Africa at the Kingdom of the White Lion Sanctuary, Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre working with rhinos, and aiding the SPCA. But it was the big cats that impressed him the most.

“Being around animals my whole life I thought I would find Africa interesting, I didn’t expect it to blow me away. I’ve seen these animals in zoos before, I know their size, I know their presence. But when you see them in their in their own environment it’s so different. They just have this confidence and a swagger. It’s just this acknowledgement that they are the boss and you feel like their servants. And as their servant when it was time to perform surgery it was one hell of a challenge,” he says.

“These animals don’t look at you, they look through you as if you don’t even matter. And it evokes some instinctive response right within you. Everything inside you is saying ‘Run away, this is not where you’re meant to be.’ In doing the job we had to do we had to fight that and actually get closer.”

Africa offered up some of its many extremes. From picturesque sunsets in the jungle to its poverty where the locals were fascinated by a 6 foot 5 Australian with white hair on his arms and stubble.

Brown joined in with local customs, some of which is included in the TV special.

“I should apologise to anybody with a knowledge of African dancing. What you see me perform isn’t even Australian dancing,” he laughs.

Working on safari also didn’t come without risks.

“Wherever you go there are things in Africa that want to kill you.

“In Australia you have to go out of your way to find a snake and they run away from you. But over there the animals come towards you. Some of the places we stayed at night we had to have armed guards walking around with us because there were leopards and lions just prowling around,” he says.

At one point all their work was nearly lost when a mischievous monkey invaded their camp.

“We looked over and a monkey had come out of a tree and had his hand in our bag. Everyone involved in the shoot jumped up and started running towards him. He grabbed three things out of the bag, ran into the tree and disappeared. So we thought we’d lost 3 tapes with all our work, but it turned out he’d taken 3 containers of lozenges that our cameraman likes to chew on.”

The small crew also experienced their fair share of adventure, including one peculiar instance of beast having a strange reaction to man.

“We went to a wildlife refuge and they had a baby rhino that was an orphan, and it would barge its way through the different rooms. It took a dislike to our Sound Recordist and would just charge him whenever he saw him. So that was the closest we came to danger.”

Another included a brush with the law.

“Our crew got off a $300 speeding fine by offering 4 soft drinks,” says Brown.

“I’m not sure they were even speeding in the first place, and maybe they created the whole thing. If they were thirsty that was the way they got around it.”

Brown is keen to undertake more foreign medical work but his commitments to his local Bondi practice limit his availability -and the production budget doesn’t always extend to such extravagance.

“We had a request to help an elephant in India but we couldn’t find the time and get the funds to do it at such short notice. A baby elephant had fallen into a ravine and they wanted some help,” he says.

“Unfortunately I run a practice here and the patients are important as well, so we have to balance all of that.”

Since appearing in the TV spotlight, he is constantly stopped and asked for medical advice from pet-owners. But he cops it all on his chiselled chin with good grace.

“You can’t just walk off and not do anything. It’s a hard part of the job, but you can’t say no to people.

“It’s just hard time-wise when you might be running for a plane and you have to give some advice and you might miss your flight.”

But there may be more free consultations to come, with confirmation of another season for 2012.

“We’ve got Series 4 coming up which we go into production with very shortly,” he confirms.

“It’s a pretty small team that puts it together so it’s nice that people respond to it.”

Bondi Vet: Africa special airs 6:30pm Sunday on TEN.

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