Volunteering in Africa adventure

SCREAMING baboons, munching giraffes and a sedated leopard are some of the creature encounters for Vanessa Croll during a wildlife expedition in Namibia.

Escape Voluntourism

BY 9AM there is no escaping the heat. Whether we're out in the four-wheel-drives checking box traps or trekking through thorn bushes in the savannah counting game animals, the heat is as constant as our shadows.

But it's days like today that make all the sweaty discomfort worthwhile.

"We've got one! We have a leopard!" German volunteer Katrin says.

I hear the highly anticipated news through the two-way radio stashed in my backpack.

We've been hiking under the searing sun across the African savannah for more than an hour. The leopard paw prints we were so thrilled to have discovered two minutes earlier now seem insignificant.

This is the most exciting news we've had since arriving at our campsite on Ongos Game Farm in Namibia, on the west coast of southern Africa, eight days earlier.

Our focus is now on the radio. Digging it out of my bag filled with snacks, water, measuring tools, sunscreen and a hopefully superfluous venom extractor, I hold the radio up for the group. We listen eagerly for instructions from our expedition leader.

After days of hoping, we are going to have a face-to-face encounter with one of the creatures we came to study.

We're not biologists, though, and not exactly tourists, either. We've signed up as volunteers for a two-week research expedition with eco-tourism organisation Biosphere Expeditions.

Our mission is to assist two scientists who study leopards, cheetahs, caracals and brown hyenas to gain a better understanding of their habitat.

Biosphere runs expeditions around the world, offering a working solution for conservation researchers who are short on funds and manpower and lay people seeking a wilderness adventure with a difference.

Our home for the two weeks in November was a well-established campsite, complete with luxury safari tents, nestled beside a beautiful riverbed that runs through Ongos.

The property covers 10,000ha of highland savannah, undulating mountains and fossil rivers.

The river near the camp runs bare, exposing pearly white rock beds during the dry season, which proves to be a bonus for us.

One night after dinner we're drawn to the riverbed by strange animal noises and the sound of crunching rocks. Much to our delight, we discover a group of giraffes having a late-night snack.

Experiences like these are a bonus during our expedition, which is the Big Cat Conundrum the challenge of protecting leopards, cheetahs and caracals in the Khomas Hochland of central Namibia.

With more than 40 per cent of Namibia consisting of commercial game and cattle farms, pressure is on land owners to keep properties stocked with a variety of animals, including two hand-reared white rhinos.

Buying these animals comes at a cost and when a sable antelope, for example, will sell for between 200,000 and 300,000 Namibian dollars ($A24,250 to $A36,370), many ranchers see it as their only option to kill the predators.

The researchers we are assisting face this human-animal conflict regularly. Only weeks before our expedition group arrived, a male leopard was shot and killed by a neighbouring farmer.

The animal had previously been captured in one of the box traps, just like the leopard we caught, and fitted with a GPS satellite collar to gather data on his habitat.

At the end of our expedition, information gathered will provide game and stock ranchers in central Namibia with management advice and recommendations for sustainable ways for African wildlife and human populations to co-exist.

The goal is for a 50,000ha reserve to be established near Namibia's capital of Windhoek, 160km southeast of Ongos.

If the alarms don't wake us before 6am, the baboons screaming outside our tents and birds happily welcoming the sun ensure we're up and ready for breakfast at 7am.

Savouring the remaining chill in the air from the night before, we follow the smell of fresh bread all the way to the main dining area and enjoy our meal together before heading off in groups.

I'm grouped with Polish-born 72-year-old Ryszard and American school-bus driver Lucia. After checking our duties for the day, we pack our required data sheets and equipment and head off with Namibian tracker Jasaja.

The other two groups take off in four-wheel-drives to check box traps and use telemetry devices to find where three collared leopards are hanging out.

We're on scats and tracks (poo and paw prints) which, despite the now scorching heat, bugs and thorny bushes, is exhilarating. We've done the theory to learn each predator's diet and appearance of their faeces, so finding and identifying a fresh sample is something to celebrate.

On discovery of fresh predator poo, we bag half of it, leaving the other half as the animal's territory marker, label it and take it back to camp, where it awaits transportation to the University of Bonn in Germany.

Researchers will then identify what the animals prefer to eat and study their genetic make-up to learn more about reproductive hormones and stress-level indicators.

From day one it was drilled into us to not expect to see any of the predators we came to study. So you can understand our excitement on learning we have captured a leopard in a box trap.

As Ongos owner and veterinarian Ulf approaches the trapped leopard with a tranquiliser gun, the animal produces an unbelievable rumbling roar. After he is safely sedated, the volunteers spring into action and help carry the young male leopard to rest him on the back of our four-wheel-drive.

Blood samples, measurements and photos are taken but unfortunately we are unable to collar this leopard.

He is too young, about two years old, and at 40kg, still has a lot of growing to do so it's back into the box trap for him to sleep off his sedation before being released.

We decide to call the leopard Elago, which means lucky in Oshivambo, one of the local languages.

The next morning we're back at the box trap for Elago's release. Safely barricaded in our vehicles with the windows wound up, the gates are pulled up and Elago is gone, up a steep hill in two powerful bounds.

Reflection is plentiful on the last day of my tremendous adventure. While picking the countless thorns from the soles of my hiking boots, it dawns on me that I have just had the most rewarding, challenging and adventurous experience of my life. 

*** Biosphere Expeditions is a multi-award-winning not-for-profit conservation organisation offering hands-on wildlife volunteer expeditions as an adventure with a purpose for everyone and around the globe.

** It offers the cat project in Namibia, a turtle project in WA, diving expeditions in Malaysia, the Maldives, Oman and Honduras and a whale project in the Azores. 

** See biosphere-expeditions.org or ph 1800 708 261.