The Clinic To Care Experience

This is a suggested itinerary. Every experience can be customised to be just right for you.

Wildlife Rehabilitation Placement

Week 1, 2, 3 & 4

Gain hands-on experience at one of South Africa’s leading wildlife care centres, where you’ll develop practical skills in animal care, nutrition, husbandry and veterinary support under expert supervision. From clinical work in the on-site animal clinic to behavioural enrichment, you’ll be immersed in every aspect of professional wildlife management. With opportunities to observe species-specific behaviour and contribute to the rehabilitation of injured animals, this placement offers a unique chance to deepen your expertise while supporting real conservation outcomes.

• Meals Provided

Shimongwe Veterinary EMS Placement

Week 5 & 6

Shadow the daily operations of experienced wildlife veterinarians in one of Africa’s most ecologically diverse regions. As part of a small group, you’ll gain exposure to a diverse range of iconic African animals and in-field casework, including darting protocols, chemical immobilisation, translocation efforts and disease monitoring. This is real wildlife, real procedures - and real professional development.

• Meals Allowance Provided

Sharpen your veterinary skills

Expand your veterinary knowledge as you encounter diseases, treatments and techniques you’ve never seen before. And build your practical skills by assisting in surgical interventions, diagnostic testing, wound management and other post-immobilisation procedures in a variety of settings.

Mentorship from seasoned wildlife vets and animal carers

Gain first-hand, exclusive insights into a career working with wildlife, learning directly from experts in the field. You’ll work under the close guidance of professionals who’ll support you to develop knowledge and skills to advance your studies or career - and help you stand out from the crowd.

Understand Africa’s iconic species

Gain exposure to a wide range of animals from big cats to prey species and megaherbivores to raptors. You’ll deepen your understanding of species-specific behaviour, physiology and nutritional needs - through a combination of hands-on care and assistance in the field and in a rehabilitation setting.

Real and ethical veterinary procedures only

From clinical procedures in the field to monitoring the vital signs of immobilised animals, all interventions are medically necessary and aligned with best-practice ethical standards. No procedures are performed solely for training.

Support animal welfare and conservation in non-touristy areas

Be first on the scene to emergency callouts, animal casualties and illnesses. You’ll also join vets who act as the first line of defence against state-notifiable diseases and play a crucial role in managing populations to maintain genetic diversity. In an environment where high-quality veterinary work and animal care is crucial to wildlife conservation, you’ll make a real and lasting difference.

Support partnerships between local people and wildlife

Gain insight into the working relationships vets and conservationists build with local landowners, communities and farmers to develop partnerships grounded in education, trust and shared responsibility - crucial for sustainable conservation and animal welfare.

Turn the African bush into your classroom

Benefit from in-the-field instruction by experienced veterinarians on wildlife physiology, pharmacology, anaesthetic risks, capture and restraint techniques, translocation protocols, endemic diseases, and many other topics.

Explore veterinary work in diverse contexts

Travel between multiple reserves and experience the varied landscapes, wildlife and rural communities that shape conservation practices across the region - and build your understanding of how South Africa’s cultural context influences how veterinary and animal care are delivered.

You’ll support veterinarians and animal care professionals in real day-to-day work. Depending on the animals being treated and cared for, the projects’ priorities, and your level of experience, this will include a range of the following activities.

Veterinary work

You will get to experience a variety of veterinary procedures in the field and clinic. Depending on your level of experience, you may observe or assist:

• Positioning immobilised animals for necessary procedures.
• Monitoring animals’ breathing, heart rate, and vital signs.
• Drawing blood, taking DNA samples, giving injections, cleaning and stitching wounds.
• Performing practical techniques on wildlife and production animals, including pregnancy testing and wound care.
• Autopsying deceased wildlife to determine cause of death.
• Working in a busy clinic alongside multiple vets and vet nurses.
• Handling a wide variety of clinical cases, including diseases such as biliary, parvovirus and canine distemper.
• Routine procedures on domestic animals, including sterilisations, inoculations, and claw clipping.
• Aftercare and recovery support, including wound management after operations.
• Providing ongoing care and medical treatment to injured or sick animals.
• Dressing wounds and administering treatment.
• Regular health checks and monitoring.
• Preparing nutritious diets for recovering animals.

Veterinary field operations and wildlife capture

You will get to experience practical conservation in the field during veterinary field clinical procedures - which may include mass wildlife capture work. You could observe or assist:

• Darting and sedating large wild animals.
• Participating in animal capture and relocation operations.
• Setting up bush camps during extended capture missions.
• Setting up bomas, the canvas enclosures used to contain large herds (e.g. antelope and zebra).
• Administering mild sedatives to reduce stress in captured animals.

Rehabilitation, care and husbandry

Wherever possible, you’ll help to rehabilitate healthy animals back into the wild. Where an injury is too severe or an animal’s territorial nature and complex social structures make it impossible to release them, you’ll help provide life-long care in the sanctuary instead.

You will get to observe or assist:

• Enriching animals’ lives through physical exercise, mental stimulation, and creating a natural setting in captivity.
• Preparing animal feed and feeding the animals.
• Mucking-out enclosures, raking grass for bedding and creating clean living spaces for animals.

You could also observe or assist:

• Preparing and releasing animals onto the project’s wildlife reserve.

Research and practical conservation work

As well as working in a wildlife sanctuary, you’ll have the opportunity to be involved in research and practical conservation work.

You will get to observe or assist:

• Providing a safe area for the wild vultures of the Drakensberg Mountains to feed, free from the risks of poisoning.

You could also observe or assist:

• Rescuing, quarantining and releasing animals such as honey badgers, servals, caracals, mongooses, leopards and rock hyraxes, who are placing themselves at risk by troubling local farmers.

Caring for young wildlife (seasonal - peak activity from November to March)

Depending on your skill level, you could work under the supervision of specialist project staff to observe or assist:

• Preparing food or formula appropriate to the species.
• Bottle-feeding or using other feeding methods.
• Monitoring health and behaviour.
• Helping integrate young animals into appropriate enclosures.

Game drives

You could get to experience a selection of additional activities:

• Game drives in the surrounding reserve - home to a wide variety of animals released from the rehabilitation centre.
• An optional excursion to Kruger National Park (subject to availability and additional costs).

You’ll learn about the veterinary care and rehabilitation of many different species, as well as their behaviour, biology, ecology, husbandry and conservation issues. Depending on the animals being treated and cared for at the time, this will include a range of the following topics.

Animal husbandry

• Individual dietary requirements for different captive species, 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 different captive species.

Behaviour

• How to monitor the health and behaviour of different species.
• How animals react to the stress of being captured.
• The behaviours of African animals, both in the wild and in captivity.
• The methods of enrichment used for different species and how this benefits the animal’s welfare.
• How animals communicate with each other.

Biology

• The effects of sedative drugs on different wildlife species.
• The impact of diseases on different species.
• The processes involved in wildlife care after treatment.
• The physiology, pharmacology and biology of different wildlife species, including lions, leopards, hyenas and other predators.
• Wildlife reproduction and how different species take care of their young.
• The optimum captive environments for different species.

Ecology

• The natural habitats of animals you’re working with and their role in the ecosystem.

Conservation

• Disease management and the importance of maintaining healthy and genetically viable populations.
• Threats to animals such as human-wildlife conflict and rhino poaching.
• The capture and transport of different species.
• How to stabilise and integrate new arrivals into the population at the centre.
• Methods used by poachers such as snares - you may even see some animals arrive at the sanctuary with snare injuries.
• The important role animal care centres play in the broader wildlife conservation movement.

Lectures in the field

• Wildlife management practices in South Africa.
• Disease management, and veterinary drugs used.
• Challenges of treating wild animals, including darting, immobilisation, game capture and relocation.
• Principles of chemical and physical restraint of wild animals.
• Anti-poaching methods in the field.