Blog posts in Volunteer Diaries

Wild Dog Monitoring on Manyoni Private Game Reserve

Waking up at 4am is never easy – especially on crispy winter mornings. On one such morning we set out blurry eyed to begin our Wild Dog monitoring session on Manyoni Private Game Reserve. We... read more

Horrible Hyenas?

Listen to a conversation about hyenas and you will likely hear more criticism than praise. “Hyenas are ugly, cowardly, useless things, with no moral scruples and no redeeming features”... read more

Face-off between 2 Cheetah Coalitions

Best. Day. Ever. Being Summertime our days usually start early around 3.30am and end rather late in the evenings allowing us to get all nocturnal, crepuscular and diurnal priority animals monitored.... read more

An Unbelievable Time for Conservation Volunteers in HiP!

Successful Wild Dog hunt, puppies, vulture sightings, three lion brothers roaring and a fantastic leopard visual A recent 2 week cycle was a very special one for our iMfolozi volunteer group. They... read more

10 Essentials for Volunteering in Zululand

We provide quite an extensive list of things to bring for those coming to spend some time volunteering in Zululand. However it’s always useful to hear from past experiences! Conservation... read more

Conservationist Tales – A Night in the Bush Darting Lions

Collaring and wildlife monitoring are a foundation of managing animal populations and provide a number of inputs into sustaining wildlife parks. Any park ecosystem has a defined carrying capacity for... read more

I’ll Remember Tembe

Nicole Clark is a student from the University of Canberra in Australia who went to Tembe in 2014 as part of a program through the University. It was a month long program which was integrated into... read more

3 Lions, 2 Packs of Dogs, 1 Rhino

Day 9 of 14 as a Volunteer Wildlife Monitors in iMfolozi Game Reserve December could not have started any better. We set out on the early morning drive looking for the Sokwezela pack, after we picked... read more

Doing our bit for Nature Conservation as a Wildlife Monitor

It’s Day 4 of 14 as a Volunteer Wildlife Monitor in iMfolozi Game Reserve After only 5 hours of sleep as a result of a rather unsuccessful lion call-up last night, we headed out at 3h30... read more

What it’s like to be involved in a Black Rhino dart!

It’s the early afternoon on a very hot day. Everyone is sleeping when the alarm sounds. “Everyone get ready as quickly as you can; we are off to dart a black rhino!” This is one of... read more