Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre

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As a volunteer at on our Wildlife Rehabilitation Experience, your role will be very hands-on. Depending on the animals being cared for and your areas of interest, you’ll get involved in the following activities:

Research and practical conservation work

While our Wildlife Rehabilitation Experience is focused on working in a wildlife sanctuary, you’ll also have the opportunity to help wildlife living in the surrounding region.

• Rescue, quarantine and release wild leopards who are placing themselves at risk by troubling local farmers
• Provide a safe area for the wild vultures of the Drakensberg Mountains to feed, free from the risks of poisoning
• Take a trip to Kruger National Park, one of Africa’s largest biodiversity hotspots

Veterinary nursing

Most animals arrive at wildlife rehabilitation centres with some level of injury or trauma. Guided by experience animal care professionals, you’ll help to treat wounds and infections, as well as providing ongoing care.

• Work in a well-equipped clinic located on site
• Assist with the treatment and care of injured animals
• Help dress wounds, give medical treatment and monitor sick animals
• Perform regular health checks
• Help prepare a nutritious diet

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 to provide life-long care in the sanctuary instead.

• Enrich animals’ lives through fitness, play and creating a natural setting in captivity
• Prepare animal feeds and provide hands-on help with feeding
• Assist with preparation and release of animals onto the project’s wildlife reserve
• Stabilise and integrate new arrivals into the population at the centre
• Muck-out enclosures, rake grass for bedding and create clean living spaces for animals

Caring for young wildlife

Looking after young animals can be particularly rewarding but they require lots of special attention – just like human infants, in fact!

• Prepare food or formula
• Bottle-feed or by another method, depending on the species
• Provide regular care and monitoring
• Assist with the integration of juvenile animals into an enclosure with other animals

LEARN

The project’s founder welcomes all our volunteers with an inspirational talk about wildlife conservation. Throughout your stay, you’ll also get to learn about the behaviour, biology and conservation of many different species.

Conservation

• How to prevent conflict between local farm owners and predators such as leopards and hyena, who sometimes hunt their livestock as prey
• 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

Ecology

• The natural habitats of animals you’re working with and their role in the ecosystem
• During a trip to the Kruger National Park, you’ll learn see the differences in behaviour between animals in the wild compared with those in the sanctuary

Biology

• The physiology and biology of predators including lion, leopard and hyena as well as other African animals at the centre
• The diets of predators and other African animals, both in the wild and while they’re at the centre
• Wildlife reproduction and how different species take care of their young

Behaviour

• The behaviours of African animals, both in the wild and in captivity
• What methods of enrichment are used for different species and how this benefits the animal’s welfare
• How animals communicate with each other