Consultancy
Game management consultancy
Game farming is one of the fastest growing “agricultural” sectors, yet many game farmers have relatively little in-depth knowledge on game ranch management, suitability of species for a habitat, camp design etc. With many years of experience in this industry we are well qualified to assist with advice and education.
Irrespective of your concerns (optimal size of camps, which species and how many, what feed to give, how to build a boma, what permits to get, what to look out for when buying at an auction etc.), give us a call and we will do our best to provide you with good advice. We are willing to do farm visits (ideally in combination with other work done on the farm or alternatively outside the game capture season) to assist you with farm specific management issues. After a farm visit, we will write an extensive report with information and advice applicable to your situation.
Research projects
Since much of our work focuses on animal welfare and conservation, we are always willing to assist researchers doing field work, like immobilising animals for telemetry device placements, biological sample collections (disease surveillance, genetics etc.) etc. With years of experience in the veterinary field we are well able to recognize, diagnose and understand disease impact on both public health and on animals (as individuals, but also on populations and ecosystems).
We will not get involved with research projects where we are not convinced that the research design and/or the research focus adequately addresses animal welfare and ethics issues. Before committing our cooperation towards a research project, we would want to be well-briefed on the project goals and methods.
Training & Courses
To further empower game farms and people involved in wildlife work, we provide training and courses throughout the country and abroad. If you have any specific topic that you suggest we provide a course on, we would be more than happy to hear from you! At the bottom of this page you can find a table with course dates and venues. If you would like to join one or more courses, feel free to contact us!
Post-Mortem course
Due to a deficiency of experienced wildlife vets in Namibia, and the long distances to be travelled to most game farms (with the obvious time delays and financial implications), few farmers have regular post-mortems done on game or livestock mortalities. We feel that farmers will benefit greatly from being empowered to do a proper, systematic post-mortem examination, collect the appropriate diagnostic samples and then have these submitted to a competent laboratory for analysis. Over and above the obvious benefit to the farmer, who will soon have a much better understanding of the health status of his herd (game and domestic), and will thus be able to take appropriate management steps, we as members of the farming community will all benefit by getting a better understanding of disease processes affecting game in Namibia. With time, this knowledge will be of great value in overall herd and disease management.
We offer 1.5-day courses where we will teach you how to conduct a proper post-mortem examination, including appropriate sample collection and photography. This will be an intensive yet practical hands-on course! If you are interested in such a course, please contact us.
Animal Crime Scene and Evidence Handling course
One of the biggest threats to both wildlife and livestock is poaching for the trade in ivory, horn and skins, but also for meat. Especially the latter one is not much highlighted by the media, but it impacts game- and livestock farmers economically, and undermines conservation efforts and tourism.
When an animal has been poached, it is important that the right steps are taken to investigate the case, and to find and handle the crime scene and it's evidence in such a way that it will lead to the arrest and conviction of the culprits.
This course is meant for farmers, managers, anti-poaching units, game rangers, police officers, and all others that might encounter wildlife crime/poaching situations. In this 2.5-day course we teach you about the proper handling of a crime scene and evidence in case of poaching, stock theft or another wildlife or livestock-related crime.
Dart immobilization course
We started this 5-day course in 2016, aiming at people who are involved in wildlife research and/or working with wildlife vets. But if you are a game farmer, a vet student, or just somebody with an interest in wildlife work this course could be also very interesting for you!
In the course we teach you more about the Namibian legislation surrounding the use of drugs, we give an introduction to the various (remote) drug administration systems, darts, physiology, pharmacology and the drugs we use. We also teach and show you how to monitor an immobilized animal and what to do in emergencies and drug accidents. Practical work will involve practising shooting with a dart gun, and we will immobilize some animals and monitor their immobilization.
Training for e.g. vets, students, rangers and farmers
In addition to our routine activities we also provide training of wildlife veterinarians (aspiring) as well as farm/reserve personnel on a variety of wildlife related issues. These training sessions are adapted to client demand, level of existing expertise as well as local circumstances. Our aim is to improve animal care through mostly “hands on” on the job training. Depending on demand, time and facilities available, training usually involves a combination of lectures with strong visual PowerPoint support as well as practical application of lessons learnt.
Examples of courses and lectures we have presented both within Namibia and abroad:
- Different game capture techniques
- Translocation and transport of wildlife
- Capture and handling of different species (e.g. giraffe, rhino, antelope, predator, elephant)
- Elephant encounters (what to do (and not to!) when you encounter an elephant
- Wildlife diseases
- General wildlife management
- Training to identify animals in poor health through the application of body condition score
- Observing and identifying sick animals in a herd
To empower Namibia's para-professionals, animal health technicians, vet nurses etc. working with wildlife, we aim to organize yearly Wildlife Para-Professional Weekends. These weekends are aimed at gaining knowledge and experiences from people working in the field. These weekends are usually accredited by the Namibian Veterinary Council, and can be used to aquire CPD points.
Course | Date | Venue |
Wildlife Para-Professional Weekend 2023 | 01 - 03 Sep 2023 | Erindi Private Game Reserve |
Post-Mortem course | 09-10 July 2022 11-12 May 2022 | SAROA Safari Lodge Kifaru Bush Camp |
Animal Crime Scene and Evidence Handling Course | 13-15 May 2022 04-06 March 2022 | Kifaru Bush Camp Etango Ranch |
Wildlife Para-Professional Weekend 2022 | 25-27 February 2022 | Erindi Private Game Reserve |
Post-Mortem course | 07-08 April 2021 | Kifaru Bush Camp |
Animal Crime Scene and Evidence Handling Course | 09-11 April 2021 19-21 March 2021 05-07 March 2021 | Kifaru Bush Camp Farm Kweekwal ISAP facility |
Animal Crime Scene and Evidence Handling Course | 17-19 July 2020 | ISAP facility |
Post-Mortem course | 14 March 2020 | AfriCat Okonjima |
Wildlife Para-Professional Weekend 2020 | 21-23 February 2020 | Erindi Private Game Reserve |
Post-Mortem course | 12-13 November 2019 | Lubango, Angola |
Niger ranger course | 26-27 October 2019 | Cheetah Conservation Fund |
Post-Mortem, game capture course | 28 February - 05 March 2019 | Kinshasa, DRC |
Dart immobilization course | 27 November - 01 December 2017 | AfriCat Okonjima |
Dart immobilization course | 17-22 November 2017 | Zambezi region |
Dart immobilization course | 14-17 November 2016 | Erindi Private Game Reserve |
