Role Of The Volunteer

Volunteers are key to the success of this project, which is renowned for the variety of animals and activities that you can experience. Participation in the programme provides employment to the local Bushman community and ensures the rescue, survival and rehabilitation of the animals, which are housed in natural environments around the site.

Daily activities will include food preparation. Throwing meat to the Lions, Leopards, Cheetahs, African Wild Dogs and hand feed the Meerkats.

You will prep vegetables, fruit and millipap to feed to the Baboons and farm animals. You will be responsible for cleaning all the animal enclosures. You can walk with the 4 tame Caracals and experience how they hunt in the wild and spend time with the tame and semi tame Cheetahs in their enclosures.

The orphaned baboons play a large part in our project. You will also rotate responsibility for bottle feeding, walking and sleeping overnight with the five baby baboons, which are currently too small to live in the camp with the young baboons.

Security on the farm is very important. You will do border fence patrol on the golf carts and do carnivore enclosure patrol on foot with a trained farm worker. There will be the opportunity to join the carnivore feeding tour when guests at the farm visit the large carnivores.

You will assist the tour guide with feeding the animals whilst the guests take their treasured photos!

Please remember that the animals are rescued, taken in, cared for and if possible, released into natural habitat again, therefore the variety and number of animals at the sanctuary differs and rotates on a daily basis.

The programme does however provide a hands-on experience with most of the animals.As new animals arrive new enclosures have to be built. Volunteers will assist the Bushman with the preparation of materials, digging foundations and waterholes and the erecting of the enclosures. Existing enclosures have to be maintained to a high standard, waterholes cleaned regularly and bones from feeding collected.

All the money raised through our volunteering program goes directly back into the project which provides employment, education and accommodation to the local Bushman community and ensuring the rescue, survival and rehabilitation of the animals which are housed in natural environments around the site.Volunteer Role at the Namibia Wildlife Sanctuary.

During your stay at the Namibia wildlife sanctuary, you will be working hands on in helping to develop and maintain a sanctuary for the rehabilitation of Nambia's exotic wildlife.

Rehabilitation of Wildlife

The Namibia Wildlife Sanctuary believes that the wild belongs in the wild and direct all their efforts towards long term rehabilitation. But sadly the reality is not all of the animals who come to the sanctuary are able to be released back into the wild. Only those that can't, mostly for reasons of human impact, remain at the sanctuary, and they are the ones most in need of your help. Many of the animals have been orphaned, hand raised from a very young age or have become too used to captivity.  It would be difficult and dangerous for them to survive in the wild as they are no longer afraid of people which in turn means they are at higher risk of conflict. The flip side is that enables you to interact in a safe environment with the animals, go for walks with the Cheetahs and come into close contact with lots of animals, that would be considerably more dangerous in the wild.

Leopard Cubs

You may be lucky to meet our gorgeous leopard cubs, Shakira and Ombelie, who are growing up fast since their arrival  in December 09. A farmer had captured their mother and thankfully phoned us when the cubs were born and he realised he couldn't look after them. Sadly they had already been removed from their mother and arrived extremely underweight and malnourished. They were around 8 weeks old, had no fur, with masses of excess skin and dull, straggly coats. Since their arrival, however, they have developed really well into young cubs with glossy coats and strong characters.

Lots of different Animals

There are a variety of animals located on the sanctuary who need to be cared for by our wildlife volunteers including: semi-tame meerkats, pigs, sheep, guinea fowl, chickens, turkeys, leopard tortoises, rabbits and lots of dogs. Baboons form a large part of the project; volunteers become surrogate mums for the little ones, bottle feeding and sleeping overnight with them. They also go for walks with any babies currently at the sanctuary and our tame bigger baboons. We cannot predict when young baboons will arrive at the sanctuary so the numbers and ages may vary.

	Other wildlife ranges from:   Leopard Warthog Kudu Wildebeest Impala Steenbok Red hartebeest Zebra.	Night time animals: Aardvarks Honey badgers Porcupines Brown hyena and there are over 200 different bird species

Animals in the Wild and game drives

You may be lucky enough to spot some of the other wildlife freely roaming in their natural environment on the farm including; leopards, cheetahs, game (kudu, oryx, hartebeest, duiker), wart hogs, porcupine, aardvark, ostriches, caracals, jackals, wild baboons, African wild cats, hares, mongoose, meerkats, vultures, eagles, and various other bird species.

Bush walks with the animals

The leopards love their daily walk with our volunteers, climbing trees in their natural environment and are already practising their stalking skills. The two are firm favourites amongst our volunteers who currently get to experience feeding and meeting them up close.
 
Please bear in mind that the cubs are continually growing and getting stronger and volunteers may not be able to walk or go in with them at all times, especially if this represents a danger to the person or animal. Please be aware of this especially if you are booking your visit a long time in advance.

Project Aims

Our aim is to provide wildlife conservation volunteers with the wonderful opportunity of experiencing unspoiled African wilderness in the knowledge that they are contributing to both the conservation and development in this rural area. After the project you will:

• Have a greater understanding for African conservation
• Have had hands on experience with African wildlife
• Have many happy memories of your experiences in Africa!

Work with the experts on a hands on conservation project

As a Wildlife Conservation Volunteer you will also get the rare and exciting opportunity to work alongside our carnivore experts and Bushman trackers in our conservation research programme. This may include getting involved with the monitoring and tracking activities of a number of leopard and cheetah within the local area, taking part in game counts or preparing for new arrivals. The aim is to gain a better understanding of big cat ecology for future conservation and to help prevent human-wildlife conflict. Our aim is to provide volunteers with the wonderful opportunity to experience African wilderness in the knowledge that they are contributing to the conservation of this area. During this trip you will be part of a group of other Gappers (age ranges are between 18 and 30, tha majority are 18-20) and you can expect groups sizes of between 15 to 20 people per month. Check out the video section for some more details on projects or get trip notes for further information