Description

Help conserve Namibia's precious wildlife at a spectacular sanctuary, in the heart of Africa. Rehabilitate and care for animals such as cheetahs, wild dogs, baboons, lions, and leopards as well as sheep, rabbits and other farm animals. Our baboons form a large part of the project; volunteers become surrogate mums for the little ones, bottle feeding and sleeping overnight with them. Hand-feed some of Africa's greatest predators, and fall asleep secure in the knowledge that you have made a difference to the precious wildlife at the sanctuary.

* What Will I Be Doing?

This project provides you with a rare and exciting opportunity to work closely with and actively participate in the conservation of African wildlife. You will care for and feed the injured or orphaned animals in the sanctuary on a daily basis as well as cleaning enclosures and helping to develop and maintain the sanctuary. The animals that make their home here include mammals as diverse and exciting as lions, cheetahs, baboons, meerkats, jackals and much more. Our baboons form a large part of the project; volunteers become surrogate mums for the little ones, bottle feeding and sleeping overnight with them. They also go for walks with any babies currently at the sanctuary and our tame bigger baboons. We cannot predict when young baboons will arrive at the sanctuary so the numbers and ages may vary but there are currently over 20.

Your weekly activities may include:

Feeding and caring for the animals, including cutting and throwing raw meat to our large carnivores (not for the squeamish!) as well as hand feeding the meerkats. You will prepare and feed the baboons and farm animals. You will also help to maintain the animal enclosures on the farm, clearing out old food and mess, cleaning waterholes and removing old bones from feeding. You will get to spend part of each week playing with and looking after some of animals on the farm including caracals, cheetahs and meerkats. You will also take the baby baboons out for walks in the African sun, bottle feed them throughout the day and even have the little babies to sleep in your room at night!

Part of your work will include building and maintenance on the farm; previous projects volunteers have helped with include building fencing and trenches for our new vegetable patch and building a new baboon camp enclosure. You need to be prepared for hard work but it's very rewarding to see the results of your efforts.

You will take part in border fence patrol on the golf carts and carnivore enclosure patrol on foot with a trained farm worker. You may also get the opportunity to learn and take part in various monitoring and tracking techniques such as searching for cheetah marking trees, locating collared leopard and cheetah through telemetry and GPS tracking, identifying, counting and tracking spoors and checking box traps.

You may spend at least one morning assisting our teacher in the Bushman school on the farm, started to provide education to the children here, whose parents cannot afford to send them to school. This is great fun and a very rewarding activity.

Highlights

* Visit unique & beautiful Namibia.
* Become a surrogate to baby baboons!
* Work hands-on at a spectacular animal sanctuary.

Languages

• English

Cost in US$:

3,100

Program Fees Include:

Before you go:
* Pre-departure support
* Travel & medical advice & documentation
* Equipment advice
* Discounted medical kit
* Free Frontier t-shirt

In-country:
* Food
* Accommodation
* Airport pick-up & drop-off
* Ground transfers & in-transit accommodation
* Local orientation
* Project training
* In-country emergency support
* 24-hour international HQ back-up

Experience Required

no

Volunteer Types

Age Range

Minimum age of 18 years

This Program is open to

Worldwide Participants. This Program is also open to Couples and Individuals.

Typical Living Arrangements

• Group living

Participants Travel

Independently

Application Process Involves

• Phone/Video Interview

Frontier's Mission Statement

To conserve the world's most endangered wildlife and threatened habitats and to build sustainable livelihoods for marginalized and under resourced communities in the world's poorest countries. To create solutions that are apolitical, forward-thinking, community-driven, and innovative and which take into consideration the long-term needs of low income communities.

Year Founded

1989