Assist a team of an experienced full-time wildlife rehabilitation team and a wildlife veterinary doctor at this fantastic wildlife veterinary hospital treating indigenous small to medium sized South African wildlife. All the wildlife treated and rehabilitated, are wild without owners and once healthy and mature enough, will be released back into a safe natural environment like nature reserves to be free as nature intended.

Some of the species treated include owls, bats, raptors, mongooses, pangolins, serval, caracal, genets, bushbabies, hedgehogs, garden birds, water birds, reptiles (tortoises, snakes and monitor lizards), honey badgers and otters — to name but a few.

Often injured and compromised wildlife are taken to the nearest veterinary practice for treatment. Frequently, the veterinarian on duty does not have the expertise, the time, or the resources to treat a particular species and as a result these animals often get inadequate care (medical, dietary and husbandry). Even 24-hour veterinary facilities are not equipped to handle wildlife longterm, as this- in particular rehabilitation- is not their specialty.

So a veterinary facility that only treats indigenous wildlife on a full-time basis was established. The rehabilitation aspect of the hospital is run and overseen by a trained and permitted wildlife rehabilitation specialist team. Regularly veterinary students and nurses are trained as well as experienced veterinarians in the approach to the treatment and rehabilitation of indigenous wildlife by the onsite qualified wildlife veterinary doctor. For those studying veterinary medicine, this project can be used as an internship as the veterinary doctor is qualified to sign off on practical credit documentation.

Volunteers allow the project to grow as a facility by taking on more patients and a greater workload. The project is busiest in the summer months, December, January and February, and baby season which is Spring, September, October and November, but requires assistance all year round.

While the project is a veterinary hospital first-and-foremost, a large portion of the work done consists of wildlife rehabilitation, cleaning and food preparation – husbandry. As wildlife is treated for free and funds are limited to employ local staff, volunteers are relied on to help with this work.

Volunteers assist with 6 days on and 1 day off a week.

The hours during the week are 08h00 to 16h00 and weekends 09h00 to 16h00. 

Volunteers WILL be required to assist with cleaning inside cages and outside enclosures. This involves removing old food and faeces and replacing contaminated blankets and straw.
Volunteers WILL be required to assist with food preparation. This involves chopping vegetables for tortoises and other herbivores, sorting insects for our insectivores, and chopping day-old chicks, rats, mice and other ‘wild’ meat for our carnivores and omnivores.

Depending on the work load, volunteers MAY:

• assist with animal enrichments for those in undergoing rehabilitation
• have the opportunity to handle, hold, or assist with the treatment of some of the patients.
• have the opportunity to witness surgeries, examinations, x-rays and medical treatments, depending on the patients currently in care. Those studying or qualified in veterinary medicine, will be able to assist the veterinary doctor in procedures.
• have the opportunity to witness or assist with gavaging (tube-feeding) birds that are too young or too sick to feed themselves.

Volunteers need to be enthusiastic, hard-working, and eager to learn. Over the busiest seasons of summer and baby season, volunteers are required to work extra hard, often without breaks. If you have any physical limitations, please let us know beforehand, so that we can adjust the jobs assigned to you accordingly.

Please be aware that this is a very serious project for those studying or qualified in Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary Nursing or one of the Animal Sciences and it is not a social placement. Participants will learn a lot, but they also need to understand that they will be involved in all aspects of care. Feeding patients and maintaining enclosures are part of the duties—tasks that even the onsite veterinarians take part in—and participants will not be involved only in veterinary procedures.

Volunteers are expected to ask questions and read up on procedures as this we want them to leave having gained new knowledge and ecperience from their time on the project.