Some things we'll be trained on

 And some of the things we’ll be doing!

We’ll be working 7 days a week for the weeks we are on the project. We may get the odd one day off to jump in the truck to go to the nearest town to get food and essential supplies - that’ll be some chocolate then!!

                                      Photo - Wildlife ACT, telemetry radio tracking
 

We’ll be trained to use the radio telemetry & GPS equipment (antennae) used for sightings and mapping whilst tracking from the truck in the bush, we may be involved in tagging (applying a radio collar after one our team Monitors has darted it of course!) and that could even be a 1 to 1.5 tonne black rhino! It’s possible that we will also be ‘notching’ (identity marking) animals  such as rhino)We’ll be under supervision & instruction at all times (safety is paramount) and will be getting some amazing hands-on practical experience.

And when we track and find one of the endangered species we’ll be observing, monitoring, recording everything from individual behaviour, behaviour within packs/groups of the same species (e.g wild dog pack dynamics), behaviour between different species, displacement of individuals and pack/groups, general movement, natural food sources, births & deaths, poaching and extent of occurances, threats, dangers and so much more. It is also possible that we could take part in the relocation or re-introduction of an endangered species from one reserve to another (a black rhino typically is sedated and carried in harness under a helicopter! We’ll be doing Vulture counts and nest surveys along with bird ringing and plant control.

We’ll also be photographing & creating identity kits for reintroduced/relocated animals plus we’ll be setting up camera traps at watering holes and game trails and we’ll assisting with ongoing game counts.