Big Five conservation in South Africa

Product Details

Big Five Game Parks usually have Elephant, Leopard, Lion, Rhino and Buffalo, although this can vary from time to time as animals come and go. They also have numerous other species, from buck to zebra to reptiles to birds... This is an excellent project - a true African experience working with wild game animals.

Options:

-If you choose to do a 1-month project, you'll be allocated to one of the three Game Reserves.
-If you do a 2-month project, you'll spend one month each at two of the Reserves.
-You can also combine one or two months at a Game Reserve and one month on our Species Survival project.
The Game Parks are all located in KwaZulu-Natal, a province on the north-east coast of South Africa.

Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa is famous for, amongst other things, its successful efforts in saving the white and black rhino from extinction. By the early 1900's, just 80 years after being discovered and named by the explorer, William Burchell, in 1817, the white rhino had been hunted so excessively that only 30 rhino remained. But, through committed conservation projects, the white rhinoceros is back from the brink. Since the 1960's, the population has increased significantly and to date over 3000 rhino have been successfully translocated to numerous game reserves in Southern Africa.

You'll live on-site in the Game Reserve during your time on the project. The environments are, without exception, back-to-nature, beautiful and wonderfully tranquil, with the excitement of regularly seeing many African species of game. There is little access to town-type leisure activities, so please bear this in mind. If you'd like a more laidback project, with more access to night-time amenities like clubs and pubs, we have plenty of others that would probably suit you better.

Generally you'll be involved in some or all of the following:

-Collecting valuable information on the number and density of various species.
-Ascertaining the different habitat uses for different purposes by different herbivores.
-Monitoring the interaction of one species on other species within the environment.
-Plant collection and mapping game paths
-Trapping, photographing and releasing small mammals.
-Back at base camp, you'll cross-reference the photos with existing data.
-If you have any experience of working with snakes, you could also collect, photograph, identify and prepare for housing snakes and reptiles.
-Generally assisting with elephant monitoring

South Africa is a huge, beautiful and rapidly changing country. Taking our Big Five conservation placement will put you at the forefront of this change.

Travellers’ placements are very flexible and can be combined with any other Travellers placement and tailor made to your requirements!