The New Horizons Sabbatical

Highlights

Get back to basics

When did you last stop and listen to the sounds of nature? With the fast pace of modern life one of the biggest thrills can be switching off. Camping under the stars, discovering how good food tastes after a hard day’s work, connecting with people around a campfire. These are things that remind us what it is to be alive.

Explore the true wilderness

In Botswana, you will have the opportunity to explore the last true African wilderness. Volunteering in the Okavango Delta will help you disconnect from modern-day life, and provide a new perspective to the everyday.

Varied accommodation

All three projects you’ll visit offer a different style of accommodation. One is high up on a hill, with spectacular views of the surrounding Greater Kruger National Park. Another is a comfortable farmhouse within a community-owned reserve. And the third is a remote camp in the heart of the Okavango wilderness, where an elephant might brush past your tent at night!

Hands-on wildlife conservation

Whether it’s watching as the team deal with the medical care of a cheetah or identifying a particular rhino and passing that information to the anti-poaching team, you will be able to get stuck in and learn the realities of this exciting work.

Be in the moment

When you are tracking a lion on foot through the bush, tuned to every sound and movement around you, the hot sun on your back and an expert tracker and his dog at your side, your senses are heightened and the rest of the world drops away.

Help conserve Africa’s most iconic species

Collect vital data to help the conservation efforts of some of Africa's most iconic and vulnerable species such as elephants, cheetahs, lions, rhinos, wild dogs, and pangolins.

Elephants with the space to thrive

Elephants need vast intact wildlife areas to be able to flourish. There are only a few places left in Africa where there is enough free-ranging space to sustain them. You’ll visit two areas where the population of African elephants, the largest land mammal on earth, is steadily increasing.

Help save the pangolin

Pangolins are currently the most trafficked mammal in the world, due to the unfounded claims of their magical medicinal properties. While volunteering you will both support and contribute to the ground-breaking research that is fighting to protect this incredible species.

The complete picture of rhino conservation

Support a project where rhino numbers are successfully increasing, to another where protection against poachers is key to saving this magnificent species. The dedicated teams of experts will teach you the importance of both sides of rhino conservation.

Protect lion mega populations

The preservation of large wildlife areas that can sustain mega populations of animals is a priority in conservation. Here you have the opportunity to visit and contribute to the protection of two out of the five places left in Africa that is home to mega populations of over 2000 lions.

Do

Travelling between locations is a perfect way to contribute to a huge range of different conservation work, learning from highly experienced and skilled individuals in each site.

Wildlife research and monitoring

Research is essential to conservation. Conservation efforts can only be improved by regularly monitoring species and collecting vital data to portray the full picture of that ecosystem.

• Record wildlife sightings and map their movements to build up a detailed database of animals’ territories
• Monitor priority species and identify individual animals such as black and white rhino, elephants, cheetahs and lions, to help protect from poachers
• Study the behaviour and population dynamics of animals such as elephants and predators
• Use GPS equipment to record transects and wildlife sightings
• Record specific animal’s age and gender as well as predatory, feeding and breeding behaviour
• Track animals on foot through the bush
• Set up infrared camera traps at waterholes to monitor elusive species
• Take a riverboat trip and see animals from a unique and tranquil perspective
• Gain insight into the behaviour of nocturnal animals such as leopards, hyenas, porcupines and bushbabies during night drives
• Witness natural wild behaviour in expansive settings, such as lions hunting or elephants playing in a waterhole

Wildlife management

As part of your role, you will have the chance to learn from experienced professionals while directly participating in varied animal management tasks based on the species being cared for:

• Watch rhino ears being notched, enabling researchers to identify, monitor and protect individual animals
• Assist with humane rhino horn trimming, an effective anti-poaching strategy
• Learn about contraceptive programmes to manage the populations of elephants and predators
• Get involved with wildlife relocation programmes, helping to move species such as rhino, lion, cheetah and antelope
• Go behind-the-scenes at an animal rehabilitation centre and work alongside the team on the ground

Learn

By visiting three projects across two countries, you will be introduced to the value of conservation in large intact wildlife areas as well as the specific impact of a smaller scale community-owned reserve.

Conservation

• The different wildlife conservation approach in different areas
• The roles that animal rehabilitation centres play in protecting species
• Rhino poaching, anti-poaching methods in the field, and relocation programmes
• Breeding programmes for rare and endangered species – such a black rhino custodianship programme
• Wildlife relocation programmes – including the WWF’s Black Rhino Range Expansion Project, the Rhinos Without Borders Programme, and lion relocation to Rwanda
• How wildlife conservation in Africa is funded

Ecology

• How large areas of protected wilderness differ from smaller reserves
• The natural environment of the Big 5 and other African species
• The role of different species in the ecosystem
• The impact of population growth or decline of certain species, such as lions and elephants, on the ecosystem as a whole

Bush skills

• Tracking animals on foot
• The medicinal uses of various plants and trees
• How to approach animals safely on foot
• How to identify some of the many insects, reptiles and birds in the area

Behaviour

• The relationship between predator and prey species
• Behaviour of animal groups, such as the social structure in a pride of lions and herds of elephants
• Predator hunting behaviour and the differences between social predators such as lions and wild dogs, compared with solitary predators such as leopards and cheetah
• Mating and breeding behaviour of Big 5 and other African species
• The movement of herd species such as elephant, buffalo and antelope

Biology

• The physiology and natural diets of the Big 5 and other African species
• Native African plants, reptiles, amphibians and birds
• The movement of herd species such as elephant, buffalo and antelope