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Elephant Care & Research - South Africa

Location

Western Cape

Start dates

First and third Monday of every month

Duration

2 - 12 weeks

Availability

Very limited availability June - October (August fully booked)

Cost - 2012

2 weeks: £645
3 weeks: £795
4 weeks: £945
Extra weeks: £170 per week

Cost - 2013

2 weeks: £695
3 weeks: £895
4 weeks: £1075
Extra weeks: £200 per week

Discounts

£35 per person for friends / partners

Work hands on with elephants
Living in a beautiful 110 hectare park
Located on the Garden Route

Project details

Introduction

A fantastic opportunity to work hands on with elephants as well as helping an active research team. The project introduces you to the magnificent African Elephant; you will be caring for these animals as well as researching them creating the elephant experience of a lifetime!

The project allows you to work closely with the elephants on a daily basis. This creates an awe-inspiring experience as you will be contributing to all aspects of elephant research, education, husbandry and conservation. As you are based in a large park, volunteers are able to get involved in all aspects including research, marketing, functions, maintenance, training, and guiding.

The research you do will contribute to ongoing research at the park. This is necessary as there is a significant lack of research carried out on captive elephants in South Africa. The project is also ideally located along the Garden Route which offers great prospects for your free time and it the ideal place to start a longer travelling trip.

Read what past volunteers have said about this project in our South Africa Elephant Care and Research reviews.

A typical day

Volunteer jobs are varied but include the following elephant care tasks:

Preparing food for the elephants
Preparing milk bottles and feeding baby elephants (this will depend on when volunteers are at the park and if there are any babies at the time)
General maintenance eg mucking out pens, general cleaning, painting
Helping elephant guides during tours
Environmental education
Assisting with veterinary care (when necessary)

One of the volunteers main activities will be assisting with research, this depends on the research being conducted at the time but could include monitoring behaviour, recording social interactions, night time observations, botanical surveys, studying feeding behaviour, dung, urine and other sampling for analysis, data input and analysis and the compilation of educational presentations.

The location

You’ll be living in the park which is located near Plettenberg Bay which is located on the famous Garden Route which is a popular tourist route due to its great beaches and numerous attractions. As you are living on site you will be able to walk to work each day as it is only 100 metres from the elephants. In fact, on a quiet night, you will probably be able to hear the elephants snoring from your bed!

How you can make a difference

Volunteers are an important part of the park and its research unit. They enable the park to include more animals in their studies and to study these animals for longer periods of time.

Having volunteers to assist with the research has allowed the park to include additional projects into their schedule. The knowledge gained from this research adds to the advice they are able to provide for the optimal care and management of captive elephants.

Volunteers help the elephant staff to feed and care for twelve elephants which is no small task!

There is also a personal satisfaction gained when the elephants start to recognise you and trust you; you will become part of the herd! Volunteers act as ambassadors for the park and its elephants by helping to spread the word about elephants and their research, welfare and conservation issues.

What's included

A comprehensive information booklet and pre-departure support
Travel advice and assistance
Being met on arrival at George Airport
Accommodation (shared room)
Return transfer to George Airport at the end of your stay
Ongoing support, help and advice from our local team

What else to budget for

The following items are not included and estimates are given as a guide for your budgeting: flights to George Airport (£600-£800), travel insurance, food and personal spending (£35-£70 per week).

More details

Background information about the project

The park began in 1994 when the owner discovered that the population of elephants in the area had plummeted from 400-500 to just 1 elephant cow in 118 years. The aim was to bring elephants back to the area. The park was the first captive elephant operation of its kind in South Africa. The purpose of the park is to provide a home to elephants in need, providing them with an improved environment, which they certainly get; the elephants are free to roam the 110 hectare park!

The park is well respected for its research efforts; it highlighted the serious lack of research done on captive elephants in South Africa, particularly with respect to their welfare and husbandry, within their own unique environments. Consequently, in 2009 the park established the first captive elephant research unit dedicated to captive elephants. The unit aims to conduct and facilitate research studies of elephants at the park and at other parks across South Africa and promotes ethical, non-harmful research of elephants. This research aims to guide management of captive elephants. Information that is also relevant to wild elephants will be used to improve their protection and conservation. The park aims to achieve conservation through education.

Support and induction

Debbie is the research expert at the project; she is the first point of call for volunteers and she and the local team will be there to support you throughout your time on the project.

During your first few days you will be provided with training on a variety of topics including elephant identification, anatomy, behaviour, research techniques, captive elephant husbandry and management.

Other volunteers

There are usually 4-8 volunteers at the project at any one time, with a maximum of 10. Volunteers come from a range of ages and nationalities.

Volunteer accommodation and food

Volunteers will be staying in a house located in the park. They are comfortable dorm style rooms. The rooms may be shared with two or three other volunteers depending on the number of volunteers present at the time. There are separate gender-defined toilets and showers which are just a few steps from each bedroom. Volunteers have access to phone, fax and internet facilities in the park office during office hours. There is a fully equipped kitchen in the house for volunteers to prepare food. Volunteers are responsible for buying and cooking their own food. There is also a restaurant at the park.

Free time and travel opportunities

During your free time you are encouraged to explore the local area. You may wish to explore the variety of tourist attractions that the Garden Route offers, these include bird sanctuaries, game and nature reserves, Monkeyland, whale watching, bungee jumping, surfing sky diving and many more.

Volunteers normally work 5 days a week with two days off (Saturday and Sunday), however you may be asked to work over weekends or evenings should the need arise.

Challenges

As this is a physical project, volunteers should be reasonably fit and healthy and able to carry out all duties required of them; research often requires you to follow the elephants on foot.

Many of the research projects involve long hours of data collecting, so this project is not for the faint-hearted. You will also be required to work in all weather conditions, but the rewards for your hard work are well worth it!

You will need to be able to work well within a team and be adaptable to working and living in a group.

Where your money goes and the PoD Charity

PoD is run as a non-profit organisation and does not receive any external funding. We charge a fee for all our placements to cover the overseas costs of volunteering and the costs of running our organisation in the UK. Fee levels are set to match costs (on a non-profit basis) and any surplus monies are distributed to the overseas organisations and charities we work with via the PoD Charity.

For over 10 years PoD has been providing volunteers to help charitable projects around the world. The PoD Charity was established in 2010 to build on this success by also providing financial assistance. Find out more and get involved in fundraising for this project through the PoD Charity.