On one of our last days we learned about poisonous snakes and we were able to hold a Black Mumba!! We also got to practice shooting the darting rifles!

After long hours of veterinary work we enjoyed the sunset at the top of one of the mountain on the farm!

We were able to visit an elephant rehab facility. Here they rescue elephants from other farms in Africa where they are over populated, preventing them from being poached, and transporting them to less populated areas. Some have been trained to be able to work with tourist and we were able to ride one! 

We visited one of the largest white rhino farms in the world. This farm as successfully helped save the species from extinction,educated veterinarians and reduced white rhino poaching by trimming rhino horns. Rhino horns are very valuable and are illegal to sell, this makes it very attractive to the black market. Trimming the rhino horns help reduce the amount of poaching in South Africa. 

We rode in pick up trucks called "Bakkies" this was so much fun! 

We traveled to Swaziland, Africa to help set up and run a plastic boma. This is used to trap animals to move them to other parts of the country. In this case, impala and zebra were being moved from Swaziland to South Africa to help integrate different genetics in other farms. The place we stayed also had a pet zebra!

 

 We visited Kruger National Park, one of the biggest wildlife parks in the world.

We assisted Dr. Raath with the treatment of zebras suffering from muscle myopathy. Muscle myopathy results from animals that get stressed out during a capture, this usually happens if the capture takes too long or if the transport truck gets stuck at the border of South Africa.

Wildlife Veterinary Program, South Africa

I was part of a wildlife conservation veterinary program in Nelspruit Mpumalanga South Africa. We stayed on Dr. Raath Cobus's farm and assisted with the wildlife veterinarians. During our trip they were rehabbing a baby rhino.

 

The first day we helped improve a database for information on research croccadiles that were used to test for parasites.