SOS Wildlife
South Africa
This exciting 2 week wildlife capture course is designed and run exclusively by Worldwide Vets for people with a love of wildlife and interested in working with animals through care, rescue or conservation. It takes place in safari reserves North of Durban in beautiful South Africa. The course focuses on wildlife capture and translocation, is hands-on to maximise your learning, and guarantees fast paced missions as you help capture and translocate a range of iconic species.
RACE accreddited for 50 hours.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
Spend your days working with wildlife vets and game capture teams
Participate in darting, translocation and mass capture of wildlife.
Combine lectures, practicals and clinical work to excel your knowledge
A hands on field course so you can improve your clinical skills
Perfect for people interested in a career with animals or conservation
Work with iconic species such as rhino, elephant, buffalo, leopard and lions
Learn a range of industry specific skills
Make friends for life, whilst living in the wilds of Africa
Project video
The program takes place in wildlife reserves north of Durban in south Africa. Through the course you will move between a number of wildlife areas, supporting animal conservation where it is needed the most. The goal of this 14 day course is to equip you with skills to get you on a path for a career in animal care, conservation or exotic animal management. No matter what your dream job, if you love animals, want to experience Africa the real way, get your hands dirty, learn support conservation, this is the course for you.
Through the 2 weeks you will go through a set routine of lectures and practical teaching, mixed with real wildlife capture and management work. This is the real deal, and thanks to the huge volume of wildlife in the area, we can guarantee you will work with a big variety of species. This course is intensive, and aims to send you home confident with planning, carrying out and understanding the logistics surrounding wildlife capture, translocation, capture and conservation so hand onto your seats for a lifechanging stay with us in Africa.
COURSE CONTENT
This course will cover all topics of game capture, including but not limited to:
Chemical capture and immobilization techniques
Various dart delivery systems
Darting procedures, telemetry tracking, and satellite collaring
Drugs for immobilization and sedation and their safe handling
Helicopter safety and the intricacies of darting from a helicopter
Netgunning for game capture
Animal handling practices
Principles behind physical and chemical capture
Selection and setup of capture bomas
Considerations for housing animals in bomas
Animal transportation methods
Beyond the mass capture event, the course offers opportunities for participants to be part of other practical wildlife veterinary management procedures, should the opportunity arise such as:
Rhino horn removal, a crucial anti-poaching method
Unique giraffe relocation activities
Darting various animals and transporting them to holding facilities
Visits to a buffalo breeding facility and being part of the disease testing process
Project Photos
ACCOMMODATION
Your main base will be at a beautiful safari camp 3 hours north of Durban. This stunning camp is a very special place nestled in the middle of a large wildlife reserve, where giraffe, zebra and ostrich are often seen wandering by. It is a place of tranquility and feels like home right away. The tented bedrooms are shared same sex spaces, with comfy beds and crisp sheets. A few meteres from the tented rooms is a living space open to the savanah, and with comfy sofas, dinner tables and a warm fire for winter nights. There is also a large outside fire to sit around and admire the African nights sky. Here you can enjoy spending your evening at leisure, watching the sunset, playing card games, and enjoying good vibes with fellow course mates.
Just across camp thre are clean bathrooms with sweeping views out over the valley, the showers having hot and cold running water. Our power supply is good and you can charge phones in the common area. We dont have phone charging points in the tented bedrooms.
There is WIFI at camp, although we do suggest that you buy prepaid sim cards at the airport incase it goes off. Our meals are South African dining at its finest (Vegetarians can be accommodated for) with local ingredients and flavors. Breakfasts are shared round the dining tables and consist of cereals, toast, spreads and fruit. Lunch onsite is a cooked meal or if onsite, a packed lunch. Dinner is a hearty South African style home cooked meal. Expect a braai (BBQ) during your stay too! Tea, coffees and juice are provided and you can safely drink the tap water.
LOCATION
The project is based on the south eastern coast of South Africa, about 3 hours from Durban. This territory is knows as KwaZulu Natal and is beautifully wild, with a richly diverse ecosystem and some of the finest reserves on the continent. Here you will be living in the bush, surrounded by nature which is both calming and invigorating. It is one of the best places to visit in Africa to view wildlife and is known for thriving populations of elephants, giraffe, lion, leopard, rhino wild dog, zebra and other planes game like antelope. Here you are surrounded by nature every moment of the day, off the beaten track, waking up early to enjoy the calmness of the bush and enjoying evenings around the campfire, under the stars.
ASSOCIATED COST:
In order to provide you with a fun, safe and rewarding stay, we have a project fee to cover your accommodation, food, and all transfers when staying with us. This cost also allows you to be covered by our public liability and professional indemnity insurance. We do not charge for your training or spending time with our vets. So you can focus on having an amazing time and we will take care of the rest.
2025: £ 2,800 for 2 weeks
2026: £ 3,120 for 2 weeks
Want to know what’s included? Great news, it is pretty much everything! Including your:
Pre-departure assistance with planning your trip from one of our destination specialists
Transfers to and from the airport
A hard copy of ‘Chemical and Physical Restraint of African Wild Animals’ - Third Edition
Project coordinator on the ground 24/7
All entry into national parks and reserves
Ground transportation related to the project
All your meals
WIFI in the classroom
Shared rooms
OUR PRICES EXCLUDE:
Flights to/from South Africa
Required: Personal medical insurance. Optional: trip/flight/luggage insurance
Visa for South Africa (free to many nationalities)
Any ‘extra activities’ or alcoholic beverages (we suggest budgeting £500 for the 3-week course)
PROJECT SPECIFICS
AGE: 18 – 65 years old
QUALIFICATIONS: Open to students of vet courses and nursing/technician courses. We do take selected pre-vets and undergraduates on this course.
EMS (other), CEMS, CPD, CE
START DATES
2025
1st June -14th June: 3 spaces left
22nd June - 5th July: FULL
20th July - 2nd August: FULL
10th August - 23rd August: FULL
2026
29th June - 12th July
19th July - 1st August
Volunteer feedback
WHAT NEXT?
We want you to join Worldwide Vets in South Africa to enjoy the experience of a lifetime and to gain ample hands-on experience with African wildlife. Just hit the "apply now" button and fill in the form.
SUGGESTED PROJECTS
