Game Ranger Conservation Experience

Highlights

Learn authentic ranger skills

During your expedition, you’ll learn to track, monitor and identify many different animal and plant species. You’ll even find out how ecologists can quickly tell the difference between females and males.

Explore Kruger National Park

Covering nearly five million acres (two million hectares), Kruger National Park in South Africa is home to all of Africa’s ‘Big 5’ species, making it one of the continent’s best places for wildlife watching.

Multiple adventures in one

As well as exploring the wilderness of Kruger National Park, you’ll visit an animal rehabilitation centre and take part in an introductory reptile course which will give you an insight into these fascinating creatures... and may even help you overcome your fear of snakes!

Evenings around the campfire

You’ll spend most of your evenings learning to cook on coals under the African night sky, listening to the sounds of nature and sharing stories from the day with your fellow travellers and conservation experts.

The ideal introduction to conservation

If you’re passionate about saving Africa’s wildlife, this fast-paced experience is the perfect place to start. You’ll get to see for yourself how conservation works, engage with professionals and make a real difference.

Do

You’ll acquire skills in wildlife tracking, identification, and reptile handling, all the while immersing yourself in an authentic African bush environment.

Wildlife monitoring

You’ll live the life of an African wildlife ranger, supporting large ecosystem conservation. 

• Track wildlife by identifying and interpreting their tracks, signs and spoor
• Monitor the movements of wildlife, including all the ‘Big 5’ species and many more
• Set up remote camera traps to monitor elusive species 24/7
• Identify individual rhinos by their ear-notching patterns

Explore every aspect of African wildlife conservation

You’ll engage in a wide range of experiences condensed into a short space of time, giving you a solid foundation in wildlife conservation.  

• Visit a renowned wildlife rehabilitation centre that offers long-term care for resident species
• Take a reptile course that will transform the way you view these incredible animals
• Visit Kruger National Park to experience more animal sightings, including larger herds

Practical conservation

Led by an experienced wildlife ranger, you’ll learn important bush skills alongside your fellow travellers.

• How to build a campfire
• Other bushcraft skills

Learn

With an experienced wildlife ranger as your tutor, you will gain an in-depth understanding of the behaviour of Africa’s wildlife and the ongoing conservation efforts, and learn various practical bush skills. 

Conservation

• The wildlife poaching crisis, which affects rhinos and elephants in particular, and the methods used to protect animals in the field
• Other threats to wildlife such as hunting, poisoning and habitat fragmentation

Behaviour

• The preferred habitats, behaviour and social structures of elephants, lions, giraffes and many other animals, large and small
• The hunting, mating and territorial behaviour of predators

Bush skills

• How to track animals by identifying their tracks and signs of their presence
• How to identify different tree and plant species as well as their medicinal and practical uses
• How to identify some lesser-known species, including the differences between males and females
• How to use a spotlight during a night drive to minimise the impact on animals
• How to approach dangerous animals safely and with minimal impact
• Astronomy, and the constellations in the southern hemisphere