WILDLIFE VOLUNTEERING: THE RED FLAGS MOST PEOPLE MISS
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Ellie Caskey, lecturer in animal management at Hartpury college, has been organising academic field trips with ACE for several years. She recently took 17 students to the Kruger for a two-week animal care and conservation field trip.
Over the three years that we have run trips with African Conservation Experience (ACE), everything from the planning process to the conservation work has been very well organised and really enjoyable.
As a teacher organising a trip for a large group of students, there can be quite a lot of paperwork and planning involved. Thankfully when planning an experience with ACE, there’s very little that I have to worry about, as they have a great structure in place for running these sorts of trips. The Academic Program team takes the time to consult us and handles all of the administration, which really makes paperwork especially a lot easier on our side.
On the ground, things always go smoothly. This year, we ran a trip with 17 students, all of whom were hoping to gain exposure to real world animal care and rehabilitation.
The trip began at Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, a leading rehabilitation centre and sanctuary in South Africa. Upon arrival we had a welcome induction from the staff and a tour of the facilities, which included seeing exclusive areas where younger wildlife is rehabilitated. Our students got really stuck into the work here, and had some great exposure to the day-to-day operations of a busy rehabilitation facility.
A highlight was the Endangered Wildlife Trust, who are partnered with Moholoholo, visiting the centre to give students a talk on the bird of prey crisis in Southern Africa.
The Moholoholo staff are real experts in their field with years of experience, and the students gained so much knowledge from working alongside them.
The students got to really engage with the staff as well and ask questions about how to get into the animal care field.
Our next stop was the Vikela Kruger Conservation Experience. Vikela is a lot more remote than Moholoholo, and our students quickly adapted to being in the bush. The project staff at Vikela have extensive knowledge and experience in wildlife conservation and anti-poaching, and are just incredible. We ventured out into the bush to track down various wildlife species, and the students were in awe of our guide’s incredible expertise in tracking and conservation of African animals. We also had a demonstration of the K9 anti-poaching dog unit, which the students loved.
When organising an academic field trip, it’s really important to me that students are always actively involved, not just on a passive game drive. They definitely got that more hands-on, practical, real world learning experience with ACE.
The setting of both projects was also fantastic. At Vikela, there is an amazing lookout over the bush, and from our accommodation we could sit and see completely wild rhinos walking by!
Overall, it was an enriching, hands-on experience for students that gave them a real world perspective on their animal care studies back at college. We’re really excited to get our next field trip with ACE organised!
To hear from more Hartpury students and their parents, check out the testimonial from their 2025 trip!
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