Kenya Wildlife. Volunteering Abroad Africa Animal Wilderness Internships

Jubileeventures.org offers you the opportunity to work with elephants in the buffer zones of the Amboseli and Tsavo West National parks.

Project Overview

Elephants normally require huge swaths of land for foraging and watering. Competition between humans and animals forces the elephant to move into areas adjacent protected parks creating conflict with the human population.

Varying elephant migratory patterns have made it hard to acquire data showing the distribution, numbers, etc; data that can be used in conservation and wildlife management efforts.

Both at Amboseli in the background of Mt Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest mountain, and at Rombo, near Kenya’s Tsavo West national park, interns and volunteers will work on the Elephant Conservation and study.The participants will be using their statistical and analytical tools in carrying out the study while collecting data on the elephants. The data so collected will also go a long way in helping to solve the human/animal conflict.

Research Objectives
The interns/volunteers will work towards achieving the following set of research objectives.

Determine the distribution of elephants.
Identify individuals and family groups.
Identify other animals and plats in the area occupied by the elephants.
Identify the migratory patterns of the elephants.
Identify some of the main causes of conflict between the elephants and humans, and their possible solutions.

Duties and Activities
Under the guidance of local scientists and technicians, interns and volunteers in the elephant project will be involved in carrying out the following activities.

Scouting for groups/families of elephants
Counting all the elephants in each group.
Counting all males, females, sub adults, babies and the infants in each group
Identifying and documenting all other wildlife, especially mammals, birds, reptiles, arthropods and amphibians found in the area.

A vehicle survey will be conducted daily from 7 am to 1:30 pm in Amboseli ( 7 am to 11 am in Rombo) and again between 4 pm and 6. 30 pm. Four days in a week will be used for this work. The interns/Volunteers will fill the elephant study- identification sheets, which will later be used for analysis.

Anticipated Benefits

On completion of the research, it is anticipated that the data will be extensively used in aiding with the conservation efforts for the elephants. It is also hoped that the study will help identify the causes and trends of human/animal conflict in the area, and come up with concrete suggestions on how these can be managed.

Accommodation and Logistics
Unless otherwise provided, three local meals per day are provided as is daily transportation to and from work. All our African wildlife volunteers and interns are accommodated in camping tents within the project area. International volunteers and interns abroad with wildlife projects are required to bring their own warm sleeping bag - a foam mattresses is provided.

Arrival Dates

Elephant Project: 16th of every month;
Lion Project: 3rd of every month.
Combined Wildlife Placement: Arrive on either of the two dates.
Combined with non-wildlife programs/projects - Arrival on 1st or 3rd Wednesday of every month.

For other logistics - click here.

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