Care For Wild Africa Rhino Sanctuary

Real on-the-ground conservation

Roll up your sleeves and get stuck into the everyday work of a genuine wildlife rehabilitation centre. Feeding, cleaning, mucking out - this is real, practical work on the frontline of rhino conservation.

Rhino specialists

Care For Wild Africa Rhino Sanctuary’s project leader Petronel Nieuwoudt is one of the world’s leading experts in the rehabilitation of rhino, with an excellent track record of releasing animals successfully into the wild.

Rhino monitoring

Care For Wild Africa Rhino Sanctuary has successfully released many of its orphans back into the surrounding reserve, and these survivors are regularly monitored to ensure they are safe and thriving.

Fully accredited

Care For Wild Africa Rhino Sanctuary is accredited by the National Parks Board of South Africa.

Support efforts to establish a viable rhino population

Care For Wild Africa aims to establish a viable breeding population of at least one hundred rhino on their reserve. By joining this project, you’ll provide vital support and funding towards this ambition and have a meaningful impact on rhino conservation.

Support vital rhino conservation

From training anti-poaching teams to carrying out cutting-edge research into rhino nutrition and veterinary science, Care For Wild works in partnership with global rhino experts to ensure a future for this amazing species. Your visit will help fund and support this vital work.

Excellent location

Just 3.5 hours from Johannesburg and only half an hour from the provincial capital, Mbombela (Nelspruit), Care For Wild Africa Rhino Sanctuary has easy access to all the facilities of a major city. However, it’s also surrounded by 7,500 acres (3,000ha) of wilderness, giving you the feeling of true isolation.

Friendly social atmosphere

Care For Wild Africa is a very social project with organised activities including music evenings, nights around the campfire, and wild swimming excursions to a nearby river. This makes it a great place to meet like-minded people from around the world.

You’ll support the project team with a variety of care and monitoring activities. Depending on the centre’s priorities and the animals’ welfare needs at the time, this will include a range of the following responsibilities.

Rehabilitation, care and husbandry

As part of a dedicated team, you’ll help care for and rehabilitate rhinos so that they can begin their long journey towards release back into the wild.

You will get to assist:

• Providing animal care and husbandry for orphaned rhinos.
• Preparing feeds and hands-on help with feeding.
• Providing additional feeds such as grass and pellets.
• Participating in the vital daily routine of the centre, including mucking out the rhino living spaces, cleaning their water troughs and the bottles used to feed calves.

You could also observe or assist:

• Preparing and hand-feeding young rhinos.
• Habitat enrichment such as creating mud wallows and scratching logs in rhino paddocks.

Research, monitoring and practical conservation work

Surrounding the rehabilitation centre is a wildlife reserve. Once old enough, the rhinos can be released into this reserve where their safety and wellbeing continue to be monitored.

You will get to assist:

• Cleaning and maintaining the rhino enclosures.
• Game drives in the reserve surrounding the centre, with the chance for wildlife sightings.
• Bush walks and walks with anti-poaching dogs, led by a qualified guide in both the reserve surrounding the centre and the neighbouring reserve.
• Monitoring the social dynamics within the rhino groups at the orphanage.
• Heading into the field and monitoring the behaviour of the released rhinos and other species on the reserve.

You could also assist:

• Removing invasive plants and clear bush from the surrounding reserve.

Caring for baby rhinos

The project staff will give you detailed lectures on how to hand-rear rhinos so you’re ready to help with this important work. If there are baby rhinos at the centre during your stay, you will get to observe or assist:

• Preparing milk formula for the milk-dependent baby rhinos.
• Bottle-feeding young rhino.

You could also get to assist:

• Integrating young rhinos into a crash (the collective noun for a group of rhino).

Community work

Care For Wild Africa works with surrounding communities to provide jobs for local people and develop food gardens, farming initiatives, and support to local children. Your contributions will have a significant impact on the wellbeing of these communities. You could assist:

• Helping local schoolchildren with their homework.

You’ll learn about the care and rehabilitation of rhinos, as well as their behaviour, biology, ecology, and conservation issues. Depending on the animals being cared for and the centre’s work at the time, this will include a range of the following topics.

Animal husbandry

• Individual dietary requirements for captive rhino, including food preparation, water provision, and feeding routines.
• Best hygiene practices, such as enclosure cleaning, disinfection of areas and waste removal.
• How to monitor the health and behaviour of captive rhino.

Behaviour

• The behaviour of rhino in the wild as well as in captivity.
• How to create an emotionally suitable environment for orphaned rhino.
• How rhinos communicate and interact with each other.

Biology

• The biology and differences between African white and black rhino.
• Rhino physiology.
• How rhino groups interact in the wild.
• The natural diet of white and black rhinos in the wild.
• How to spot the difference between male and female animals.
• How to identify the tracks of different species.

Ecology

• The natural environment for rhino.
• The vital role rhinos play in the wider ecosystem as an umbrella species.
• Identification of common trees and birds.
• Unique geology of the area.

Conservation

• Rhino poaching and the crisis of orphaned calves in the Kruger National Park.
• Rhino rescue operations.
• The reasons for the decline of rhinos.

Community

• How conservation goes hand in hand with supporting local communities.

This project contributes to a variety of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. As part of the team, so will you. 

Zero Hunger End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Care For Wild Africa has created small-scale farms and vegetable gardens which provide food, employment and income for the communities around the centre. The methods of farming employed by the community farms are low impact, organic, and carried out by hand. 

Quality Education Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

Through the Good Works Foundation, a local NGO, Care For Wild Africa welcomes local youth groups for weeks at a time to educate local South Africans about rhino conservation.

All learners acquire knowledge on how human actions can affect wildlife and how they can minimise this effect - and have access to the same standard of education regardless of sex and background.

Gender Equality Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Care For Wild Africa provides equal employment opportunities and women hold key leadership and decision-making roles, including the project founder. The centre also offers equal volunteering opportunities for women and men from outside the local community.

Affordable and Clean Energy Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

Care For Wild Africa has implemented a modern solar energy system to power the centre efficiently and sustainably.

Decent Work and Economic Growth Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Care For Wild Africa routinely employs young people between 15 and 24 and provides equal employment opportunities for local men and women. Volunteers provide both economic and physical support, facilitating important rhino conservation work and sustainable farming initiatives.

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation

Through the financial support generated by self-funded international volunteers, Care For Wild Africa has been able to implement a solar energy system that powers the project - thereby developing resilient and sustainable energy infrastructure in Africa.

Reduced Inequalities Reduce inequality within and among countries

Care For Wild Africa requires participants to pay for volunteering, which supports their conservation and community activities. They offer a reduced rate for South African volunteers to promote inclusion among local people.

Sustainable Cities and Communities Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Care For Wild Africa builds sustainable and resilient buildings using materials that are locally sourced from within South Africa. The project also protects natural heritage through the conservation of iconic African species, the black and white rhino.

Responsible Consumption and Production Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

Care For Wild Africa promotes responsible tourism in a variety of ways: through the creation of local jobs; via community work that sustains local cultures; by educating international and local visitors how to live in harmony with nature; and in its vital conservation work.

Life on Land Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

Care For Wild Africa takes urgent action to halt biodiversity loss and prevent the extinction of threatened species. By rescuing and rehabilitating black and white rhino, the project prevents the degradation of ecosystems in which these species play a crucial ecological role. The reserve surrounding the centre is a protected habitat where flora and fauna are allowed to flourish.

Care For Wild Africa also takes urgent action to prevent poaching in the Kruger National Park, the epicentre of Africa’s poaching crisis. By employing a highly skilled anti-poaching unit and training officers to protect other wildlife reserves against poachers, the project is a leading force in Africa’s anti-poaching movement.

Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

Care For Wild Africa employs an expert team of anti-poaching officers, who patrol the reserve to combat and deter poachers and reduce the unethical practices associated with their activities.

Partnerships for the goals Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

Through Care For Wild Africa’s partnership with us, they draw in financial resources that are used to fund conservation and provide support to their community partners in South Africa.