Conserving Threatened Rhinos in South Africa

I promise you that every wild and praising superlative you can think of applies to this trip. I have such admiration for Dr. MacTavish and her team. We were so well looked-after, and getting a breakdown of the field data we were gathering and what it meant to the project really made me feel I was indeed contributing in some small way to some very important work. The area is beautiful - we saw SO MANY animals apart from the rhino, and will never forget walking behind a small herd of them in the late afternoon, or our excitement at spotting different bird species, the good food, the good humour and laughs, and how incredibly brave and committed the team is at the reserve. Please support this project if you can, and please Earthwatch keep backing Dr. MacTavish and her crew. And thank you for being the conduit to such brilliant experiences. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

This was a really well-organized trip, with a wonderful blending of education and very concrete activities where you really were able to collect data and support the research effort, all combined with great camaraderie and an incredible warmth toward all the animals and all of us. I learned a ton. On the last day, they had miraculously collated all our data and provided a slide show reporting on the results. Just amazing! Kudos to the team for all the logistics planning and making this such a memorable experience!

My first “Conserving Endangered Rhinos” was in February 2016 and my second in June 2018. This expedition is all about the rhinos with a strong influence from wildlife conservation, personal education, international economics and politics, South African law, hip pocket research and fun. Lynn MacTavish is a strong, hardworking, smart, passionate leader. The opportunity to work with Lynn, her father Dougal, Charles, Matthew, Luke and the rest of the staff is worth the trip. It’s a great atmosphere, focused on the rhinos; it’s casual and safe. Living condition are fine, food is great and plentiful, social atmosphere is interesting, especially if the team is broadly international. On my first visit we had people from six countries and that made for some great conversation around the fire at night. The chance you take is relative to the team that joins you. One team was fantastic and one was very good – people on both teams made deep impression on me, all were interesting and interested people. Earthwatch is quite an organization, I only wish I had found it 20 years ago. Where else can you get up early in the morning, eat a hearty breakfast, hop onto trucks and drive into the bush to find rhinos. And when located you stay with them and gather and record interesting behavioral data. And the next morning you’ll be anxious to do it all again. A couple of recommendations: make sure you like dogs and cats – they live here. Arrive at Johannesburg the day or evening prior to the rendezvous – it’s just good for you and your team. Join a team which will have researchers from Brighton in attendance – that presence provides a larger experience. Join an expedition that will assist with the trimming of rhino horns, it is an emotional life time experience to monitor the breathing of a rhino, keep it cool with water, cover its eyes, collect dung samples; then give it a hug, see it wake up and return to its normal behavior. One last suggestion, you’ll only be at Mankwe once in your life; absorb as much as you can and resist distractions of things you can do at home and when you get home, you will have grown personally and socially. Sadly, we had a number of young people who had a cell phone in their hand much of the time; we missed their presence and they missed a lot of stuff. Those last hugs from Lynn and Dougal were real tough; knowing that I won’t be back.