Increasingly, travellers are requesting to take part in conservation when embarking on a safari. Dorine Reinstein looks at some of the options.
- Rhino tracking
Wilderness Safaris’ Desert Rhino Camp in Namibia offers guests the opportunity of both tracking rhino on foot or by vehicle with Save the Rhino Trust trackers. A portion of guests’ nightly rates directly funds Black rhino monitoring.
At the Wilderness Safaris Toka Leya Camp in the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, travellers can also get up close to these endangered animals. Zambian Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) scouts monitor the rhino 24 hours a day. Guests are driven through the park where they are able to track rhino on foot accompanied by a scout.
Chris Roche, Chief Marketing Officer at Wilderness Safaris, says active participation is always a privileged addition but is not always possible or practical to arrange. “It is equally important to emphasise that just by going on safari with a reputable operator, any guest or client is actually helping contribute to both of the aforementioned causes. In fact, the single most important contribution of the ecotourism industry in general is that its business viability makes for a far broader conservation and community viability in terms of providing a sustainable commercial underpin to the setting aside of land for conservation rather than less sustainable land uses.”
&Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve and &Beyond Ngala Private Game Reserve both also offer rhino notching activities.
- Cheetah conservation
The ‘working guest’ programme at the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia allows guests to participate in hands-on conservation, says Marcia Gordon, Extraordinary Journeys co-founder. “They make travellers aware that it is important to remember that sometimes the most useful things that a volunteer can do are the least glamorous, from chopping meat to entering data into Excel!”
Working guests at the Cheetah Conservation fund will be relied on to complete a great many tasks that involve nearly every aspect of the operations.
3. Monitor turtles at Rocktail Camp
At Wilderness Safaris’ Rocktail Camp in iSimangaliso Wetland Park, KwaZulu Natal, travellers can take part in monitoring during turtle season. This project includes monitoring of loggerhead and leatherback turtles. During October and March each year Wilderness also operates turtle drives for guests. The guest contribution for the activity directly supports the ongoing turtle conservation in this environment.
- The annual game census at Ant’s Nest
The annual game census at Ant’s Nest and Ant’s Hill in the Waterberg allows guests to get involved in reserve management and is perfect for horseback riders, says Gordon.
Guests can participate in the census for an entire week between May and June. Activities include game counting, darting, capturing and relocating wildlife.
Traditionally, game censuses are done by helicopter but Ant’s Hill performs the whole operation on horseback, which is seen as more accurate and less of a disturbance to the wildlife.
- Wildlife research in Swaziland
The Swaziland Savannah Conservation Project offers travellers the opportunity to engage in hands-on conservation, according to Melissa Mitchell, Sales and Marketing Co-ordinator at All Out Africa.
Mitchell says travellers will engage in walking and driving through game reserves, conducting research and monitoring activities as well as recording habitat and environmental variables. Guests will gain hands-on experience in handling wildlife, using tracking equipment and setting traps.
The research may involve weighing, measuring, tagging and banding young birds, bats and reptiles to monitor their condition and enable the study of their population dynamics and dispersal. It also may involve fitting radio-transmitters to track the animals to determine their home range, distribution and movements.
- Help mitigate human-wildlife conflict
Paul Tully, Sales and Marketing Manager at Captured in Africa, says during the 'Kalahari to Chobe' safari organised by Captured in Africa, travellers join the team at Walking For Lions, a South African non-profit organisation that aims to mitigate human-wildlife conflict between lions and farmers.
Says Tully: “Walking For Lions operates projects in Pandamatenga, where, as part of this package, guests head out with the WFL team and visit the projects and local village.” He says guests will also hear a talk on lion conservation.
- Study wildlife
EcoTraining offers anyone studying wildlife sciences from anywhere in the world the opportunity to stay in the camps and carry out research and monitoring as part of their theses or studies back home.
Katherine Greathead, Marketing Manager for Eco Training, explains: “Besides participants being able to submit their research data to the relevant research bodies both locally and internationally, these activities all result in a connection made by man to the species in an intimate sense, and they leave highly impacted upon, with changed mind-sets about the environment.”
- Research marine species
Visitors to Gansbaai have the opportunity to be actively involved in the protection of the African penguin. Heidi van der Watt from Better Tourism Africa, says guests can purchase artificial penguin nests that help stem the species’ decline. “If guests want to be more actively involved, they can be involved in cleaning the bird’s pens, crates and living areas, assisting with preparing medicated fish, recording medical records and data and telling visitors about what we do,” she says. Other activities include reading blood slides on the microscope and capturing data. Guests staying a minimum of four weeks may be able to learn how to handle the birds themselves if the rehabilitator feels the guest shows an aptitude for this.
- Jane Goodall Chimp Eden Sanctuary
According to Welcome Tourism Services Sales & Marketing Director Alessandra Allemann, the Jane Goodall Chimp Eden Sanctuary in Mpumalanga brings the world of chimpanzees closer to humanity through education end eco-tourism. It is the only chimpanzee sanctuary in South Africa.
Travellers can embark on a volunteer programme where they’ll be able to observe the chimpanzees from a viewing platform and learn how to use behavioural data sheets. They’ll assist with maintenance tasks for the volunteer compound, cut up food and sort donated fruit for the animals, and also participate in behavioural enrichment activities for the chimpanzees. Due to the safety, health and wellbeing of the chimpanzees and volunteers, there will be no direct physical contact with any chimpanzee, and safety rules distancing volunteers from chimps must be strictly adhered to.
- Be a vet for a day
Chris Pearson, WildCon Events, says that on a WildCon Safari, travellers are actively encouraged and safely guided to participate ‘hands-on’ in locating animals from the helicopter, monitoring vital signs, taking important measurements; injecting antibiotics and reversal drugs, and fitting tracking collars.
Says Pearson: “The entire conservation procedure is funded by our packages, which are sold to our clients, thus assisting the game reserves or research organisations concerned with the financial burden of these conservation necessities.”
Edith Delalande, Office and Marketing Manager for Brothers Safaris and African Vet Safaris, says travellers can participate in a specialist veterinary safari, which gives them a rare and unique hands-on opportunity to become involved in wildlife conservation.
