Travel Destinations
Sabi Sands, South Africa
Private reserve next to Kruger National Park which takes up 65,000 hectares. It has an unfenced boundary to Kruger so wildlife freely wanders the land. There are the Sabi and Sands Rivers that run through the Reserve attracting wildlife..
Limpopo Reserve, South Africa
Limpopo Reserve in located in north South Africa bordering Mozambique. This area is recovering after years of war. There is a lot of poaching happening in this area which Rangers are working on preventing. Much of the recovery is around removing snares and cleaning up the area for wildlife.
Limpopo Reserve
During my time with working with GVI Limpopo I learned how to search for animals using tracks and scat. I learned to look towards areas with water that attracted wildlife. We used wildlife cameras to track animals and see what is in the bush. By participating and using wildlife cams we were able to identify many different species of animals, such as giraffes, hyenas, honey badgers, impalas, water bucks, and many more wildlife.
After viewing the animals we saw on the wildlife cams, we made observations to determine where they inhabit. We learned that the best place to put wildlife cams is by troughs, which is a watering hole. During winter months in South Africa there is no rain making water scarce. This means that there are few watering holes and all the animals have to go to the same watering holes.
Some ways you can get involved in participating in research is research sites such as zooniverse.org. You can as a citizen look at wildlife cams and identify animals that you see on it and the characteristics researchers are having you help idenitify. By identifying animals on this website, scientists are able to use citizen science. Citizen science involves community members getting involved in research to help them have less work and complete more research. I have participated in many different project on zooniverse.org such as identifying wildlife in the African Savanah and polar bears in Churchill, Canada in the Arctic environment. This website is free to use and majorly benefits conservation movements and allows anyone to participate in this research and in the end help with conservation and protecting our wildlife.
GVI Conservation Limpopo Teen Program
A significant part of the GVI Limpopo Teen Conservation Program involved service. One day we spent working with The Phalaborwa Nature and Heritage Foundation (https://arrcanimalrelief.com/pnhf-heritage-phalaborwa/), a non-profit focused on wildlife conservation. We worked on snare sweeping. Removing snares involves locating and removing traps set by poachers. This helps to prevent local wildlife from getting harmed by snares. Snares look like pieces of wire that can catch the animal’s skin and cut it. We removed 136 snares and removed them through GVI Teen Conservation Program. Another organization we worked with was Rhino Revolution (https://www.rhinorevolution.org/), and organization focuses on rhinos. They focus on anti-poaching and working on changing policy to help rhinos. We learned about rhinos and how we can help them be protected. Lastly, we spent the day serving 451 meals to children within the area. We also were able to play sports with local children and spend time getting to know them.
Sabi Sands - Leopards
Sabi Sands is known for its biodiversity and vast wildlife species.
