HNC Animal Care Students Excited to Visit Africa

Eight students from Rotherham College’s HNC and HND Animal Care course are travelling to South Africa for two weeks in March as a unique learning opportunity that has become an annual trip for the higher education students.

Their tutor, Jacqueline Moore, has arranged to visit the Kwantu Private Game Reserve in South Africa located in the Eastern Cape as part of the Africa Big 5 project which consists of the five greatest wild animals of Africa; elephants, lions, rhino, leopards and Cape buffalo.

The reserve is known for its dedication to conservation and the environment. The reserve is about 6,000 acres and includes a clinic, an elephant sanctuary and the safari. As well as the Big 5, there are zebra, hippos, giraffes, monkeys and baboons to name a few as well as 250 species of birds and a vast array of plant life. Volunteers work with local guides to fully immerse themselves in the life of an Assistant Game Ranger on the Big 5 reserve.

The tasks given to the volunteers are always changing, due to the demands of the reserve, and include lion tracking and monitoring, game drives and counts, predator care and interaction, fence patrol, repairs and maintenance, animal management and counts, game captures, tree planting and landscaping and the removal of alien vegetation.

The guides provide plenty of assistance and knowledge throughout the experience and the volunteers gain a good knowledge of the science behind maintaining a reserve, for example monitoring the vegetation species and animal species numbers to keep the balance.

The students will also take part in the vet programme which has been arranged as a bespoke part of their trip so they can practice caring for exotic animals they wouldn’t usually get to treat.

They will be staying in spacious five star backpacking dorms on the reserve during their stay, facilities on the reserve include an outdoor pool, a cricket pitch, a spa and the on-site shop. Three meals will be provided every day from the same catering service who provide the food for the luxury safari guests and at weekends they will have the opportunity to explore nearby locations such as Port Elizabeth.

For more information about Animal Care courses at Rotherham College please call 01709 722777 or visit https://www.rotherham.ac.uk/courses/animal-care/