Cheetah outreach or others

Re: Cheetah outreach or others

samantha tully RVN MBVNA — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:36:21 GMT

Hi, I am going to south africa in september to work with one of the wildlife vets in kruger national park - I am doing it through a company called conservation africa and they are brilliant. You get to do all sorts of stuff with the big cats, antelope, elephants rhinos etc. It is a pricey option but is going to be well worth it for the hands on with real game and the great experience.

Re: Cheetah outreach or others

hissycat — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:04:35 GMT

I am totally cheetah obsessed! the cheetah conservation fund in namibia takes volunteers, there are also lots of companies that take people on big cat trips, aimed more at people doing gap years I think, but would be worth doing some research.. unfortunately I have never been on any of the volunteer programs, so couldn't say how good they are. Check out Africat aswell if you havn't already, don't think they take volunteers but they do great work with the cheetahs. Namibia is a beautiful country so you'll have a fab time if you go there, loads of other stuff to see aswell if you get the chance to travel for a bit too. please let us know all about your adventures if you do decide to go! Getting jealous now, I can't wait to go back to africa!

Re: Cheetah outreach or others

Sue Cox — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:19:13 GMT

hee hee cheers phrin!!

Hey Julie! Go to www.harnas.org. This is a wildlife foundation set up in Namibia to take in injured and problem wildlife. They range from birds, meercats, baboons and monkeys, to cheetah and lions!! oh they also have goats and sheep! FYI never take a baby goat through a cheetah enclosure, even if it is a shortcut

I went for a month in 2007 and it was the best time of my life! Your normal day starts earlyish after breakfast, go to the food prep area n sort out the animals food the day- this can be cutting up vege n fruit for the baboons or being handed an antelope leg for your cheetahs! You then go and feed them!! It is the most thrilling thing to walk in a cheetah enclosure, shout "breakfast!!" and have 3 fully grown cheetahs come running at you! You then clean out the enclosures by picking up old bones etc. After that you can either chill out for a while (there is a pool and bar, oh yes!) or go sit with your favourite animal. In the afternoon the volunteer coordinator will normall have some kind of task planned- either helping build a new enclosure, bush walk etc. At night everyone normally hangs at the bar or in the volunteers house, or you can even sleep out in an enclosure if you want, another FYI- cheetahs like chewing on sleeping bags.

You can probably tell from my ramblings that I am completely in love with the place and am wanting to go back someday soon! For the costs (always an issue on a vets nurse wage!) i think its now about £300 a week (includes accomodation, and food- not drinks at the bar though sorry!), its the flight thats the pricy one- i think its about £600 return from london to windhoek, namibia return. You can arrange transfers with them too. (dont think theres an extra cost there)

If you have any questions about it, feel free to ask!! (i love any excuse to talk about the place- "one time...at harnas..."

Have fun planning....

Re: Cheetah outreach or others

Phrin Vernon RVN — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:00:36 GMT

Oooh - One of the VN's I work with has done something like this!

She is a member on here so hopefully she will be able to help