The Immersive Wildlife Rehabilitation Experience

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

Golola Rhino Orphanage And Rehabilitation Centre

Week 1

Gain invaluable hands-on experience caring for orphaned rhinos at a dedicated sanctuary, under the close guidance of expert zoologists, conservationists, and researchers. Beyond the sanctuary, you’ll help monitor these remarkable animals after their release into a wildlife reserve, set against the breathtaking backdrop of a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

• Self-Catered

Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre

Week 2

Volunteer at one of the biggest wildlife sanctuaries in South Africa - home to lions, leopards, cheetahs, wild dogs, hyenas, vultures, and many other threatened animals. From preparing enrichment activities to helping maintain enclosures, you’ll get involved with every aspect of animal care and rehabilitation. If you’re lucky, you may even get to experience the moment an animal is safely returned to the wild.

• Meals Provided

Work with and help save the lives of African wildlife

Directly participate in animal care work with a wide variety of animals - including charismatic and threatened species such as rhinos, lions, cheetahs, wild dogs, honey badgers, servals, caracals, bushbabies, vultures and antelope.

Experience a range of care and rehabilitation work

Explore the world of rhino care and rehabilitation alongside a specialist and expert team. Then gain first-hand experience of feeding, cleaning and enriching the lives of many different animals in one of South Africa’s biggest wildlife sanctuaries.

Help support the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT)

Moholoholo works in partnership with the EWT, a world-leading authority in wildlife conservation, and is their preferred poisoned vulture recovery and rehabilitation specialist. By joining the project, you’ll learn about their critically important work and the vital role vultures play in creating a healthy ecosystem.

Assist the rhino rehabilitation journey

From bottle-feeding orphaned calves to supplementing the food of released rhinos and monitoring their journey in the wild, you’ll support many different rhinos at various stages of their recovery.

Work with world-class rhino specialists

You’ll live and work alongside Golola’s highly qualified and passionate team, led by an experienced zoologist specialising in rhinos. With one-to-one learning opportunities at every turn, you’ll pick up unique insights into ground-breaking rhino research.

Location, location, location

Golola and Moholoholo are situated near several large national parks and private reserves rich in wildlife. These important habitat areas see high numbers of injured, hurt and orphaned animals every year, who only survive because of the project’s work and support from volunteers.

Assist efforts to establish a new wild rhino population

Golola aims to establish a viable rhino population on the reserve. The project’s research into how they’re making this a reality is being shared with other conservationists, helping secure a future for rhinos across Africa.

You’ll support the project teams in real hands-on wildlife care and monitoring. Depending on the conservation priorities at the time, this will include a range of the following activities.

Rehabilitation, care and husbandry

You’ll work with a variety of animals, some who can be rehabilitated and released back into the wild and others who require life-long care in a sanctuary.

You will get to observe or assist:

• Enriching animals’ lives through physical exercise, mental stimulation, and creating natural settings in captivity.
• Preparing animal feed and feeding the animals, including weighing out supplementary pellet feeds for rhinos and preparing hay.
• Mucking out enclosures, replacing bedding such as hay or raking grass, scrubbing feeding and water troughs, and creating clean living spaces.
• Animal enrichment work, such as creating mud wallows and sawing fresh branches for browsing animals.

You could also observe or assist:

• Preparing and releasing animals onto the project’s wildlife reserve.
• Rescuing, quarantining, and releasing species like honey badgers, servals, caracals, mongooses, leopards, and rock hyraxes.

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:

• Orphaned rhinos being hand reared.
• Preparing milk formula for the milk-dependent baby rhinos.
• Bottle-feeding young rhinos.

Vet nursing

Most animals arrive with injury or trauma. Under supervision and depending on your skill level, you could observe or assist:

• Working in a well-equipped clinic or ICU.
• Dressing wounds, giving medical treatment, and monitoring sick or injured animals.
• Conducting regular health checks and preparing nutritious diets.
• Carrying immobilised animals and monitoring their vital signs during procedures.
• Assisting with veterinary care both at the centre and in the field during visits from specialist wildlife veterinarians.

Monitoring and conservation work

In addition to sanctuary work, you’ll have the opportunity to be involved in conservation efforts including:

• Providing a safe feeding area for vultures and monitoring their population.
• Monitoring and integrating rehabilitated rhinos into wild populations and observing their behaviour for signs of injury or illness.
• Tracking and recording wildlife movements and behaviours, including giraffes, wildebeest, zebras, and other species in natural habitats.

Educational activities and bush skills

Education is an important part of project life. You will get to:

• Join formal and informal talks on topics such as the rehabilitation process, the rhino poaching crisis, and local wildlife and ecology.
• Participate in educational bush walks, learning bushcraft skills including track identification and the medicinal uses of plants and trees.

Additional activities

You may also have the chance to experience:

• Game drives in surrounding reserves, home to a wide variety of animals released from the rehabilitation centres.
• Optional excursions to places such as Kruger National Park (subject to availability and additional costs).

You’ll learn about wildlife behaviour, biology, ecology, and conservation issues. Depending on the projects’ work 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.
• Specific dietary needs of captive rhinos, including differences between white and black rhinos.
• Best hygiene practices such as enclosure cleaning, disinfection, and waste removal.
• How to monitor the health and behaviour of different captive species, including rhinos.

Behaviour

• The behaviours of African animals both in the wild and in captivity.
• How to create stimulating environments for orphaned animals, including rhinos, to support their welfare before release.
• How animals communicate and interact, including rhino communication and social structures.
• How orphaned rhinos integrate back into the wild, including breeding behaviour and social structure.
• How to identify signs of illness and injury in animals.

Biology

• The physiology and biology of African predators such as lion, leopard, and hyena, alongside other animals at the centre.
• Rhino physiology, including differences between white and black rhinos.
• Wildlife reproduction and parental care across species.
• The natural diet of wild and rehabilitated species, including rhinos.
• The optimum captive environments for different species.

Ecology

• The natural habitats of animals you’re working with and their role in the ecosystem.
• Ecological factors affecting rhinos and their role as umbrella species.
• The unique environment of the UNESCO World Heritage Site where rhinos are monitored.

Conservation

• The causes of, and potential solutions to, human-wildlife conflict.
• How to stabilise and integrate new arrivals into captive populations.
• Methods used by poachers, such as snares, and recognising injuries from them.
• The reasons rhinos are being poached in southern Africa.
• The roles played by rehabilitation centres, rangers, and anti-poaching dogs in conservation efforts.
• The process of rescuing orphaned rhino calves and providing specialised care.
• The important role animal care centres play in the broader wildlife conservation movement.

Research

• Opportunities to observe veterinary procedures, including life-saving interventions on rhinos.
• Monitoring rhino health through techniques such as faecal sample analysis and parasitology studies.