Safari Vet Internship
South Africa
This is a 12 day programme for vets, nurses and students of veterinary and nursing degrees, designed to give a very practical and hands on experience. It is RARE accreditec for 40 hours. You will learn a wide range of wildlife veterinary medicine concepts and practical skills. A combination of real life cases and lectures from experts in the field will give you the best learning opportunity to progress your career or studies in a group of up to 12 participants.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
Spend 12 days working closely with a welcoming team of wildlife veterinary professionals
Live, breathe and work in the African bush
Travel around the country treating and saving wildlife
Make a genuine impact helping to conserve endangered animals
Learn from dynamic lectures, fitted around the clinical work
Work with species such as rhino, elephant, leopard, lions and antelope
Stay in everything from 5* lodges to rustic camp sites
Project video
The highly sought after course is led by experts in their field, and is aimed at everyone from vet and nurse students wanting to sample the industry, to exotic or wildlife vets who want to develop their skills further, or complete accredited ‘professional development’ hours. Attendees canbe aged 18 to 45 and as a course delegate you will gain an understanding of wild animal veterinary medicine and the challenges and joys faced when working in Africa. Your time with us will enable you to actively contribute to the protection of endangered wildlife on a global scale.
Amid exciting wildlife work, you will cover a range of applied lectures and teaching modules, to ensure you go home with a huge wealth of knowledge to take your career or studies forward. Lectures are given both in 'lecture room' settings, and out in the field whilst the clinical work is occurring. The course is capped at 12 participants to ensure the best learning experience. Each lesson you cover is exciting, forward thinking and relevant to conservation and wildlife medicine. Your classroom may be under a shady tree, in a game capture boma or even under a proper roof!
Module 1: Wildlife veterinary medicine
Module 2: Conservation & wild animal behaviour
Module 3: Human – Wildlife conflict
Module 1: Wildlife veterinary medicine
During this module you will learn about the day to day requirements, procedures and challenges faced in the wildlife industry. You will be equipped with knowledge to develop your clinical skills, including the drugs that you will see used, ‘best practice’ methods for procedures and how to manage and recognise infectious diseases.
Module 2: Conservation & wild animal behaviour
In this module you will learn about how to use your own skills to assist with the decline in wild species. South Africa is a world leader in the protection and maintenance of biodiversity of their natural heritage, and you will learn the steps required for habitat control, conflict management, medical care and the resulting protection of animals that can occur.
MODULE 3 Human – Wildlife conflict
You will be introduced to how conservation can improve local and international lives, and what that can mean for the wildlife in Africa for generations to come.
During the course, you will have a chance to work with a range of exciting and iconic species. We make no guarantees that you will meet all of these animals face to face, but students in previous years have carried out the following work:
Lion- Health testing, disease screening, translocation and pregnancy diagnosis.
Primates: baboons, vervet monkeys, lemurs. Sedating for blood tests, health checks and surgery.
Antelope– Net captures are carried out to move large numbers of antelope. This involves a helicopter driving the animals in to a large net trap, then your team hand catching and carrying them to the trucks for transportation.
Wildebeest and Zebra– Join the helicopter pilot as he drives animals in to the boma from the air and the ground team prepare the animals for travel. This may include tranquilising and covering sharp horns!
Giraffe– Blood and faecal sampling for reserve management. Post mortem investigations.
Elephant—Tuberculosis blood testing, translocation, foot/toe nail treatments.
Buffalo—Tuberculosis blood testing and capture.
Project Photos
ACCOMMODATION
Our accommodation will be dictated by the places we are working and will range from 5* lodges with verandas and great views across the savannah, to rustic camp sites with drop toilets and showers that are open to the evening stars, and much in between!
We do not promise any accommodation type during your stay so ask you to come with an open mind and enjoy what the game reserves offer us, their vets. There will always be drinkable tap water, bedding provided, and ample amounts of tasty food for you as we cater your 3 meals a day. We can cater for most dietary requirements so please highlight these to us on booking. In the evenings you will be surrounded by wildlife, enjoy evening gatherings, nice food and chats about day-time adventures with the team and your course mates.
Delegates will be able to pay most accommodations to do their laundry, or some people prefer to bring a small bottle of travel wash and do most of it themselves. Clothes dry very fast in our nice warm sunny daytimes. For staying in touch with people at home, you can unlock your home sim card for use abroad or buy a local sim card and purchase a data bundle for using the internet. Many of the places we go get phone and 3G signal, but it is possible some accommodation or areas of the bush will have no signal. Some lodges will also have WIFI that you can log in to for free or for a small fee paid direct to the lodge.
LOCATION
Delegates fly in to Johannesburg airport and meet their course mates on arrival. Ahead of you will lie an exciting fortnight of wildlife work as you gain insight into the veterinary industry and get hands on with real wildlife cases.
During the fortnight you and your team will be nomadic, moving from game reserve to game reserve, treating a wide variety of species. The great advantage of being mobile is that you gain maximum exposure to different procedures, plus you get to see how a variety of animals are managed. On top of this you will enjoy seeing a range of beautiful game reserves. Half way though the course you will fly down to the south Coast of South Africa to a town called George, where you will continue your clinical work until the course ends. This allows deligates the widest variety of work experience possible and to work with our numerous vets in numerous locations.
South Africa is split in to 9 provinces, and you will work across 3 of them: Gauteng, Limpopo, and Western Cape. Each province has its own unique ecosystems, scenery and cuisine, as you will learn during your stay with us.
PROJECT COST
2023: £2,885 for the 10 or 12 day course
2024: £2,885 for the 12 day course
Want to know what’s included? Great news, it is pretty much everything! Including your:
• Pre departure assistance with planning and flights from one of our destination specialists
• Transfers to and from Johannesburg airport
• A veterinary manager on the ground 24/7
• All entry in to national parks and reserves
• Ground transportation related to the project
• 3 meals a day
• Safari drives during the project
• Shared accommodation
• Course Merchandising: Cap, Shirt, notebook, pen, USB.
• Certificate of attendance
OUR PRICES EXCLUDE:
• Flights to/from South Africa
• Internal flights to George (if required)
• Personal medical insurance
• Visa for South Africa (free to many nationalities)
• Any ‘extra activities’ you wish to do.
START DATES
This project runs on set dates each year.
2023 dates
13th - 22nd June (10 day abreviated course)
3rd - 14th July (12 day course)
1st - 12th August (12 day course)
20th - 29th August (10 day course)
2024 dates
1st - 12th July
1st - 12th August
18th - 29th August
Volunteers must arrange their flights in to Johannesburg International airport on the first day of the course. We will meet you there and transport you to the 1st accommodation. We ask you to book a flight arriving in before 10 am on this day.
During the course we will fly from Johannesburg to George and on the last day of the course we will drop you to George airport. Your flight needs to depart George after 1pm on this day. If you want to go off and travel after your course, please feel free to ask us for advice. Heading off to Cape Town is a popular post-course adventure!
Volunteer feedback
Caitlin Murphy
August 2022
"I had a fantastic time! Dr. Fabiola is an incredible teacher and leader who is extremely passionate about wildlife conservation, which made me feel even better about my decision to attend her project. I always felt 100% safe, cared for, and thought of throughout the entirety of the trip. That woman really is my hero and I couldn’t be more grateful"
Jesus, Spain
Sept 2021
"The first injection you give a rhino, to hold a cheetah in your arms, to capture a buffalo in the middle of the savannah to treat a retained placenta, the smell of a lion, flying in a helicopter ... I think all of us as children, when we watch the national geographic or the nature documentaries, we dream of travelling to Africa and living adventures, working with wildlife, working as a veterinarian doing what we like the most, which is being surrounded by incredible nature. The things that this trip has made me feel, I have not felt since I was a child, without a doubt motivates you to continue fighting for what you want. And in addition to all that, I am lucky to have met incredible people and professionals that I will remember for a lifetime"
WHAT NEXT?
If the idea of joining our team treating, rescuing and working with wildlife sparks your interest, just click the "apply now" button, fill in our form, and we will be in touch with you right away.