Translocations

Wildlife translocation

The translocation of wild animals involves the capture of the animals, transporting them and settling them down in a new environment. We specialize in both capture, transport and translocation of wildlife, including high-valued species. Wildlife Vets Namibia has an unlimited game dealers' licence, meaning we can translocate all species, including elephants and rhinos. Over the years we have gained much experience in game capture and translocations which, combined with state-of-the-art equipment and an experienced capture team, ensures successful capture and translocation operations.

Transport

We have three specialized wildlife trucks, five wildlife trailers (including a giraffe/rhino recovery trailer that we can use in the field) and nine specialized wildlife containers. Since 2020 we also have our own specialized elephant transport crates, and elephant wake-up crate.

We can thus be of assistance in any wildlife transport. Over the years we have gained experience in translocating all kinds of species, from the African elephant to small antelopes, within Namibia or abroad.

Exporting wildlife 

We export Namibian wildlife to reserves and private parks within Africa. We have years of experience with exporting game to Angola, and since 2017 we successfully started to export animals into different reserves in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, by road, ship and airplane.

Before exporting any animals, we conduct a comprehensive assessment of e.g. habitat, food availability, diseases, fences, species selection and possible problems to ensure the animals will thrive in their new habitat. We will write up a report with our observations and recommendations that can be used to further improve the reserve's management. Needless to say, we focus on projects that will contribute towards conservation within Africa. We can also assist in arranging all the necessary permits for you.

Mass game capture

Plastic bomas are the most widely used method of mass capture in southern Africa, and can be used to capture most species. The animals are herded into the mouth of the boma by the helicopter. Once the animals are in, plastic sheets behind them are closed, leading the animals towards a solid-sided crush and up to a loading ramp, into our specialized wildlife trucks. We inject the animals with a long-acting sedative, which keeps them calm during transport.

We no longer do mass captures ourselves, but we facilitate and assist selected game capture teams. The main advantage of using bomas is that human-animal contact is minimized, and a herd can be captured and transported as a single entity.

For both boma capture and dart work we work with specialized wildlife helicopter pilots. We can highly recommend Simon Wildlife Services, with who we have been working together with for many years. This reliable, honest and very experienced Namibian-based company offers (mass) game capture, helicopter- and game transport services.