The Shamwari Conservation Experience team are currently supporting the Sunshine Coast Charity (SCC) wherever we can help. This charity was established by farmers wives to support HIV/AIDS infected and affected children in the area. At the moment we are in the process of building a kitchen and dining area at Colchester Primary School, Eastern Cape, South Africa. A Government grant of R2.50 per child per day gives the children 2 slices of bread, butter and pilchards. The SCC would like to subsidise this to enable them to have a hot meal. We also build them this jungle gym and swing set … go girl power!!!
We had the great pleasure of having Sparshalt Agricultural Collage visit Shamwari Conservation Experience in April. As usual they spent two weeks with us and not even the wet weather kept them from working and playing hard. Can you believe that in only a short two short weeks we managed to cram the following into our schedule?
We chopped alien prickly pears and thorny Acacia bushes to clear roads, fed the buffalos and nyalas at the breeding centre, learned about held snakes, started a new community project (planted trees, erected a fence around a playground, painted tables with the kids and planted poles for a kitchen project at a school in Colchester), we watched eland being offloaded from the game truck and into their holding pens, we did lectures and talks, had a rehab tour and spent some time feeding lovely Debra the zebra and her donkey friend, we went on an anti-poaching walk and learned about poaching in South Africa and how to find snares, we spend a whole day looking for elephants only to find them on the furthest possible hill, but found dung beetles pushing their balls, black rhino, the king of the jungle and some hippos instead. We got stuck in the mud and got dirty and cold but we had fun!
Besides spending time with us Sparshalt also got to do some pretty cool stuff in the area. They visited Daniel cheetah farm, raptor and reptile centre, Addo Elephant National Park, did an elephant back safari, went zip-lining through the tree tops and took a scenic plane ride.
A big thank you to the awesome group who introduced us to chubby bunnies (a game involving multiple marshmallows in your mouth) and hope to see you back soon!
Cindy – SCE Coordinator
We had the great pleasure of having Animal Management students from Sparsholt Agricultural College back for their 5th year at Shamwari Conservation Experience. As usual they spent two weeks with us and not even the wet weather kept them from working and playing hard. Take a look at what we managed to cram into our two week schedule?
We chopped alien prickly pears and thorny Acacia bushes to clear roads, fed the buffalos and nyalas at the breeding centre, learnt about snakes and held them, started a new community project (planted trees, erected a fence around a playground, painted tables with the kids and planted poles for a kitchen project all at a school in Colchester), we watched eland being offloaded from the game truck and into their holding pens, we had wildlife conservation lectures, a Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre tour and spent some time feeding lovely Debra the zebra and her donkey friend, we went on an anti-poaching walk and learnt about poaching in South Africa and how to spot snares, we spent a whole day looking for elephants only to find them on the furthest possible hill, marvelled at dung beetles, black rhino, lion and hippos instead. We got stuck in the mud and got dirty and cold but we had fun!
Besides spending time with us Sparsholt also got to do some pretty cool stuff in the area. They visited Daniel cheetah farm, raptor and reptile centre, Addo Elephant National Park, did an elephant back safari, went zip-lining through the tree tops and took a scenic plane ride.
A big thank you to the awesome group who introduced us to chubby bunnies (a game involving multiple marshmallows in your mouth) and hope to see you back soon!
Shamwari Game Reserve is about 25 000 hectars in size (that is 25 000 rugby fields for those who don’t know). Because it is so large it is sometimes difficult to monitor all the animals and especially hard to find animals such as black Rhinos and Leopards, who are solitary, nocturnal and sticks to the thick bush. We darted this white Rhino to put a radio foot collar on. With these collars we are able to track them via telemetry equipment. This helps a lot with monitoring their movements and especially when a Rhino have not been seen for a while. Want to have a true wildlife experience? Want to work with animals? Come to Shamwari Conservation Experience for the time of your life!
A surrogate mother is an animal which takes on all or part of the role of a mother to another animal of a different kind. At Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre (HESC) we rely a lot on surrogate mothers. When Jabulani, from our sister property Camp Jabulani, was young he had a sheep as a surrogate mother. Elephants have strong family bonds, and Jabulani thrived on the motherly care he got from ‘Skaap’ (the Afrikaans word for ‘sheep’). We’ve since had other animals take on the surrogate mother role.
We have Alsatian and Dachshund dogs that have taken over the role of mothering cheetah cubs. The cubs enjoy licking, playing and just crawling all over them. As they grow up, they will run with them and learn from them where to go and where not to. This makes them feel safe and cared for.
It takes a special character and personality to be a surrogate mother. These animals have a lot of patience and are natural nurturers, and they make working with animals here at HESC so much easier.
Gap Africa Projects are the specialists in gap year and volunteer projects on the African continent and have a wealth of experience in organising life-changing volunteer projects for like minded people who share our passion.
