WORKING WITH WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY

I have been working at the wildlife centre throughout the whole year. My course that I am doing now have a lot more in depth information about animals in captivity.

Firstly I learned about the important of personal hygiene and the importants of keeping the animals environment clean. I cleaned cages myself so that I could get the experience.

The best part was when we learned about how and why animals boma's are build in a specific way. The preparation,feeding and animal behavior was the most interesting part of the course, where you learn why animals behave in a certain matter and how to avoid danger and injury.

I really found it interesting to do the fiscal work to gain the experience.

GAME CAPTURING

On the 5th of May myself and a few of the other students went to go capture Rhino's near Rust de Winter. The farmer had a problem with poachers on his farm. We were called in to help the vet to catch the rest of the Rhino's because the farmer sold them to someone else.

We started by being at the farm at 7am. We then waited for the vet to arrive where he told us what is going to happen and what was expected of us. He then got everything ready before we started. As he flew with his chopper to go look for the Rhino's, us that were part of the ground crew stared moving in the direction of the chopper with the trucks.

We were in contact constantly with the vet on the chopper by radio. As he darted the first Rhino we rushed towards the seen with the trucks. As we arrived at the seen, the ground vet put a cloth over the Rhino's eyes. We then helped to get the Rhino in the right position. The ground vet then woke up the Rhino and we helped leading the Rhino into the truck. After we made sure that the Rhino is safe and everything was alright we then proceeded to go look for the next Rhino.

The day was a great success and there was no problems. We caught four Rhino's for the day. I feel really honored to have been part of that experience.