Volunteer Abroad Zululand South Africa - Brigitta

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Name: Brigitta

Age: 70

Project: Species Conservation Zululand

Duration: 4 weeks

Period: March til April 2026

Volunteering in Species Conservation in Zululand

Hluluwe & iMfolozi Park as well as in the Manyoni Reserve

In South Africa there are game reserves. These are fenced "wildlife reserves" where Africa's animals live. There are state-run and private game reserves, which differ mainly in the rules for visiting them. In state reserves you're allowed to drive your own car, whereas in private ones you can only go with guides. Unfortunately, both kinds of lodges make money from tourists. Wildlife Act has set itself the task of protecting endangered animals through monitoring. With success: just two years ago, over 400 rhinos were lost to poachers in HIP, for example, but last year only 40!!!! They have also established two wild dog packs, which are thriving magnificently.

I spent two weeks in a state reserve, at the iMfolozi Camp in HIP (Hluluwe and iMfolozi Park), and two weeks in a private reserve, at Manyoni, and I can't say which I preferred, because both had their advantages and disadvantages.

The monitors who worked with us as a team in the camp were all four of them very nice, and above all the other volunteers were incredibly kind, and we had a wonderful time together.

The big age gap was never a problem at any point, and I felt incredibly at ease. If it weren't for Werner and Lotte, my family and friends, I would have stayed longer.

Below I report on my experiences with animals and people in South Africa.

My journey to South Africa

The flight from Munich to Johannesburg was calm and I was able to sleep well, as the seat next to me was free, giving me more room to move. In Johannesburg I had a very long layover and quickly gained some experience of my own naivety: I walked through the entire airport building with all my luggage, because the baggage box couldn't be found and everyone I asked sent me in a different direction with an overly friendly "Can I help you Mme.?" Suddenly a man in an orange T-shirt approached me. He asked whether he could carry my luggage to the Airlink baggage counter, my airline for the connecting flight. When he saw the doubt on my face, he said: "Don't worry Mme, I'm an official porter." So I let him. On the way he told me that I could surely check in my luggage already, and that he could also speak to them about whether I could fly earlier, so I wouldn't have such a long wait — he'd sort it out. He then let me try that on my own, which of course wasn't possible, and then asked me for a tip. When I told him I didn't have any ZAR yet, he said euros were fine too, about 5 €… I gave it to him and he disappeared at the exit. I don't think he had to "work" any more that day.

In the afternoon, at 4 pm, I finally set off for Richards Bay, where I was already awaited by the taxi driver, who brought me, in a very entertaining ride (he told me the best stories), to the "hotel". It was a small cottage, and behind a counter stood a "Big Mama" in traditional dress. At least she eventually found my booking on the computer, along with the fact that I'd already paid. Then she realised I had booked dinner and breakfast and got nervous and made some phone calls. The result: she had forgotten about dinner, and the person she called couldn't provide one either, so she asked if she could order me a pizza. That was fine with me, and she showed me to a little cottage with a garden where I could spend the night. The pizza worked out in the end, and, tired, I first sank into the bathtub before going to sleep. Breakfast the next morning went smoothly, as did the taxi transfer to the airport in Richards Bay. However, the driver who was supposed to pick me up from there to take me to the camp wasn't at the agreed spot. I found him anyway, and off we went — about an hour's drive to the gate of the iMfolozi Reserve, which was to be my home for the next two weeks.

At the gate, Kyrstie was already waiting with a fully loaded jeep, as she had bought the food and drinking water for a week. Even so, the five of us volunteers, along with our luggage, still fit onto the loading bed.

Now began a 90-minute, bumpy drive to the camp, and we already saw plenty of animals: warthogs, Cape buffalo, impalas, nyalas, zebras, giraffes, elephants…

Once at the camp, we stowed the food and then moved into our rooms. Afterwards, Kyrstie gave us a first introduction to the camp rules on the terrace.

Rule No. 1: Don't die!!!!!

And then she casually told us that if you're bitten by a black mamba, your chances of survival are basically zero, since an antivenom has to be injected within 20 minutes, and we would be at least 2 hours from the nearest hospital. So: always wear sturdy shoes when you go outside, and always take a head torch at night.

Okay, now we knew: this is Zululand, not Disneyland……..

Below I describe the individual animals and my experiences with them.

Elephants in Zululand

Elephants live in so-called breeding herds with an experienced matriarch, the elephant calves, and the bulls, in a matriarchal structure. Sometimes the bull elephants separate for days at a time and go their own way, before rejoining the herd later. During this time, they are especially dangerous. Elephants cannot regulate their body temperature and, in the heat, risk overheating. That's why they fan themselves with their ears, which allows them to cool down. Or they spray water or sand onto their bodies with their trunks. They can also locate other elephants through their footpads, which look like the sole of a slipper. The African elephant's trunk is built so that it can grip things and pluck leaves from a tree. Most of the time, though, elephants aren't so precise with their movements, and instead tear branches off trees or knock them over entirely. You can always tell where elephants have recently passed through by the destruction left behind. Elephants don't have a fixed territory and keep moving all day long. They eat up to 800 kg a day.

Right on the second day we had an encounter that was quite something: a herd of elephants was passing by us, all very relaxed, when suddenly a young bull turned around, looked at us, lowered his head and started fanning his ears. He was threatening us. Kyrstie whispered to us: "Don't move!" None of us dared to even breathe.

The elephant stood maybe 1 metre away from me, and I tried to remember what you're supposed to do when meeting an unfamiliar dog: don't look it in the eyes and don't move. So that's what I did. It felt like an eternity until he finally turned away and walked right past the jeep, but thankfully didn't ram us. Phew, a close call.

Our next elephant encounter was at night, just before reaching our camp. We stood in the middle of a herd of elephants that was passing calmly by us. Elephants communicate constantly with one another, making various rumbling sounds. This sounds absolutely fascinating in complete darkness. It took a good 30 minutes for the herd to pass us, as they were also feeding along the way, and during that whole time we didn't move an inch. And again: a female elephant turned around behind our jeep and started threatening us, but then thought better of it and moved on.

Third impressive encounter: another herd of elephants crossed the path, and two young bulls approached our jeep. But they were quite friendly and very curious, and trunked our jeep from front to back. Nice!

We encountered elephants every day, as there are very many of them in both reserves. To keep the population from growing too large, female elephants are given contraceptive injections.

Giraffes

Giraffes are such elegant and beautiful animals. They live either in large herds or as a "bachelor group" — young bulls that have banded together. They're curious and driven by testosterone!!!! So it can happen that they line up in front of the jeep. But giraffes are harmless.

It looks especially beautiful when giraffes gallop. They're very fast, but it looks like slow motion. Or when they're eating leaves from trees. They tower over most trees, and you can spot them from far away because their long necks poke out above the treetops. Giraffe necks, incidentally, are used for various purposes: when two bulls fight, they smash their necks together with incredible force; when they're cuddling, they intertwine their necks so it looks like a heart. But the most amazing thing I experienced with giraffes was this: giraffes grieve. We set up a camera trap next to a dead giraffe to check which animals came to feed and when, in order to document the whole process. The herd of giraffes came to the dead animal every day for a week. They stood in a circle around the carcass and sniffed it.

When giraffe bulls fight each other over a female, they use their long necks to strike one another, and when they cuddle, they intertwine their necks like a heart. You can spot giraffes from far away, as their long necks rise above the trees and bushes.

Hyenas

In the evening at camp, once it was dark, or in the morning when we set off for our morning session, we heard hyenas all around us. Sometimes it sounded as though they were right at the fence. Hyenas communicate with one another to signal where there's prey, since they actually live in clans… also in matriarchal structures, by the way… and are nowhere near as antisocial as they're often described. They probably have this reputation because they really will eat anything, even their deceased clan members.

Hyenas hardly differ from one another in appearance, and it's very difficult to determine their sex. Female hyenas have what's known as a pseudo-penis, which is an enlarged clitoris. During birth, the babies have to pass through this 18 cm-long birth canal, which is very dangerous for both mother and young. Stillbirths are very common, or the mother dies from injuries sustained during birth.

Hyenas eat everything, including carrion and bones, and are therefore responsible for keeping nature clean. But they smell absolutely awful. You can smell them from far away.

We came across several hyenas; once, one came slowly towards us right in the middle of the path. We stopped the jeep and it walked slowly past on the left-hand side. I was sitting on the left, and the hyena looked me straight in the eyes for a long time. It had such intelligent eyes. After a while it slowly moved on and hid in the savannah grass to go hunting.

Rhinos

There are white rhinos and black rhinos. They got their names because of a spelling mistake: the white rhino has a wide mouth, and so someone wrote "white rhino" instead of "wide". The other one was then simply called black.

The black rhino in particular is critically endangered, because its horn is used mainly in China for traditional medicine and as an aphrodisiac. Poachers cut the horn off the animals and leave them to bleed to death miserably. These poachers are organised in syndicates, live in huts in the forest, and are usually active on moonlit nights. That's why, on the night of 1 April, a full moon night, the helicopter flew the entire night.

Wildlife Act therefore de-horns the rhinos regularly, 2–3 times a year, to protect the animals from poachers. No horn — no danger to the animals.

Once we were sitting around the campfire during a braai when we received the news that a rhino had been killed by poachers. Michael in particular, the rhino officer at Wildlife Act, grieved for this animal as though it had been his own child. But the mood among the others was subdued too.

A day later we actually saw two people sneaking around inside the fence. Fortunately, Luis had a very large telephoto lens on his camera and was able to photograph them. We sent the photo on and very much hope the poachers were found.

I noticed two particular things about rhinos.

First: they cuddle with one another and make benevolent, rumbling sounds while doing so.

Second: they sit like dogs, which looks very funny from behind because of their large backsides.

They are also unexpectedly fast.

On one day I had the opportunity to visit the rhino station at Manyoni. There are currently four babies there being nursed back to health until they can be released back into the wild.

One is 14 months old and already eats grass. It was driven away by its mother's new mate and was wandering the bush alone. It can be released back into the wild in two months.

The second was 6 months old and was found wandering alone in the savannah.

The third, at 4 months old, was found next to its dead mother.

The fourth is only 4 weeks old and was rejected by its mother, who wouldn't let it feed. It's now being bottle-raised by a volunteer. It gets its bottle every 3 hours, day and night, and snuggles up to its carer, who is with it around the clock and whom it follows everywhere. They've also put a goat in its enclosure so the little one can learn to eat grass from her.

At the rhino station they also have many Malinois dogs, which protect the rangers during de-horning, as this is an extremely dangerous job because of the poachers.

Lions

Lions live together in groups. Siblings often stay together for life and support one another. Prey is always hunted and killed by the lionesses. However, the lion is then allowed to eat first. Lions mostly hunt at night and rest in the shade during the day.

In iMfolozi we only encountered one lioness, who had just eaten and was now resting on the path, grooming her fur.

In Manyoni we encountered 2 lions, 3 young lionesses, and a group of siblings (2 male and 1 female).

The first two lions were LM 4 and LM 27, father and son. LM 4 is already 15 years old, which is an astonishing age for a lion. You can see his long life and the numerous territorial fights in his appearance, and he moves slowly and heavily. We first encountered him at night on the way back to camp, because he was sleeping at the roadside and we almost drove over him.

The next morning we immediately drove back to that spot, and he was indeed still there. But someone else was there too: his son, LM 27. We didn't see him, but we heard him!!!!! The old lion asserted his territorial claims against us and roared, though because of his age it sounded more like a hiss. And then, from the bushes beside us, came the answer: a tremendous roar (a lion's roar can be heard up to 8 km away). It sounded as though the old one had called out: "Hello, are you there?" and his son had replied: "Don't worry, everything's okay." Musa then told us that the son always stays near his father, protecting him and helping him hunt. At midday we found the two of them sleeping under a large bush, and towards evening the younger one with a pretty lioness he had just mated with. However, he was limping badly on his right front leg. Whether that came from a fight with his father over the lioness, we don't know. We were very worried about the two lions, because if the son is injured, the father is also at risk. The next day we discovered LM 27 next to a giraffe carcass, and it turned out he had also gorged himself on it during the night, as the camera trap we'd set up next to the carcass recorded everything. The lion clearly looked better in the photos too; his gait was no longer so restricted.

We came across the 3 young lionesses one morning, right in the middle of the path. They were travelling together, playing with each other, leaping up against tree trunks as they passed, and while they took notice of us, they weren't at all bothered. They looked like playful kittens (which, indeed, they are), and you'd never think lions were dangerous predators.

Finally we encountered the 3 siblings, who had slept the night on a warm rock and were just waking up. We watched them for a good 30 minutes; they walked right past our jeep, looked us in the eyes, and then moved on. The two boys on the outside, the girl in the middle. I asked Musa: could they not just leap straight onto the jeep if they wanted to? His answer: sure, they could!!!!! But humans aren't prey for a lion, and besides, a jeep with 4 people is perceived as a single unit — essentially, as one big animal.

Male lions kill the cubs of other male lions. That's why a lioness withdraws before giving birth, has her cubs, and only returns to her group once the little ones are big enough.

In conclusion, lions are hugely impressive animals — lionesses in their unique beauty, and lions in their strength and power.

Cheetahs

Right on the second day we had the great fortune of witnessing a cheetah being darted and sedated. CM 24 had a large wound on the inside of his right thigh, was nursed back to health and fed in the boma, and was now ready to be released back into the wild. So the vet was called in and sedated him with a dart. Now everything had to happen very quickly: we laid the cheetah on a large cloth, carried him to a wooden crate, and "stowed" him inside — which wasn't easy at all, since he was actually too big for the crate. He had put on quite a lot of weight in the boma, which was also evident from how tight his collar had become. In the wild that would change quickly again, though. We then loaded the crate onto the jeep. Now the cheetah had to be driven into his territory to be released. The whole thing had to be completed within 45 minutes, because the sedation only lasted that long.

Finally we had to collect all the remaining meat and bones the cheetah had left behind. It stank terribly!!!!!

The next day we met 3 female cheetahs right in the middle of the path, who were doing their morning grooming, licking each other's fur and cuddling. A beautiful morning scene.

After that we saw a female cheetah with her 3-month-old cub. She had originally had 3 cubs, but 2 had presumably been killed by lions, which isn't unusual in the bush.

Our next cheetah encounter wasn't really an encounter at all: we had the task of finding CF 24. She was to be captured in order to pass on her genes at another reserve. With cheetahs it works like this: the males own and defend territories, and the females then go to them and choose who they want to mate with — often with several at once. They then have cubs from multiple males in one litter. We tracked CM 24 for over a week. We always had a signal, but too far away. Finally she was very close to us, no more than 20 m away, and she was resting!!!!! We couldn't see her, she must have been lying somewhere asleep, but this was the opportunity!!!!! So we immediately called the vet, who also came quickly. But the vet's sedation dart missed, and she was up and away into the wilderness. The vet and Janlu, our monitor, searched for her for hours while we waited on the jeep in pouring rain. Our session that day lasted 11 hours straight, in pouring rain, and I was so soaked that the next day I had to put my feet into wet shoes, even though they're supposed to be waterproof.
Nächste Gepardenbegegnung, sehr witzig:

Next cheetah encounter, a very funny one:

It was my turn to operate the telemetry equipment. For this, you stand in the jeep with an antenna in one hand and a receiver in the other, and try to pick up signals from a particular animal's GPS tracker, which you enter into the receiver. This can be quite exhausting, because you have to hold your arm fully stretched upwards for minutes at a time. So there I was tracking, and I got a signal from a cheetah, quite close by and getting stronger and stronger, and Janlu got nervous, started the jeep, and I kept tracking and tracking and tracking as we drove. Suddenly Miran, who was sitting behind me, nudged me and said: "Hey, look at the road." There lay 3 cheetahs, quite relaxed, stretching out in the sand — but not at all in the direction we had assumed. The 3 cheetahs were two brothers with their father, and at some point the two brothers decided to move on. The father stayed lying down, and a little further along, one of the brothers turned around and called to his father with a meow like a kitten. It sounded like: "Hey old man, come on… let's go." So the father got up too, and off they all went.

In Manyoni we only had one cheetah encounter:

CM 27 absolutely needed to be darted so he could be flown to Zambia to pass on his genes there. CM 27 is always together with his brother. We saw the two of them once from a distance, but never close enough to call the vet. One evening, driving back to camp, we came across them by chance: they were walking casually ahead of us, playing with each other, sharpening their claws on a tree trunk, and evidently looking for a good place to sleep — this went on for a good 30 minutes before we left them to it. It was too dark to call the vet. So the next morning we went back to the spot, and they were indeed still there!!!! Luckily for us, they had just hunted an ostrich and were eating it, which gave the vet time to arrive. However, he still had to shoot an impala to offer the cheetahs as bait, so they would come close enough to be darted. That worked too — even though they were already full, they still nibbled the rear end off the impala. They could be loaded onto the jeep, driven to the boma, and laid down there. We then waited until they woke from the sedation and we were sure they were doing well. We also left the rest of the impala with them in the boma. Our task for the following days was to check on them twice a day. The next morning only a few bones were left of the impala — they'd eaten it completely and were lying there contentedly with round, bulging bellies. Cheetahs normally only eat every 3 days; now it was the other way around… three times a day.

Cape buffalo and Dagga Boys

Cape buffalo are huge and live in large herds. When apparent danger arises, the bulls form a phalanx around the females and calves, facing towards you with their heads lowered. They're so strong that they can potentially knock over an elephant. Unfortunately, most of the animals have TB and are also a danger to other animals should they be eaten as prey. When a buffalo calf is born, it stands up immediately and moves on with its herd. "We're in the bush, you have to be able to stand up straight away, otherwise you get left behind," says Musa.

When a bull buffalo grows old and can no longer keep up, he's driven out by the other bulls in his herd. He then has to live alone and usually stays in mud wallows. His face and body are covered in mud, and the Zulus call him a "Dagga Boy". Dagga means mud in Zulu. He's extremely dangerous and aggressive, and it's best to keep a wide berth from him.

Zebras and Wildebeest

I'm putting these two together because they're actually often seen together in the bush. Zebras closely resemble our horses and mostly live in herds. Every zebra has a different pattern, and their tails sometimes have a pattern like a plait. The foals always stay close to their mothers, and the stallions protect their mares by shielding them from apparent danger. So they actually live a peaceful life, apart from a few young stallions who engage in little power struggles with each other, biting one another on the neck.

Wildebeest are called "wild beasts" in English, and that's exactly what they look like. They have a relatively small body with long, thin legs and a huge head with a broad forehead. It looks especially cute when the calves get their little horns. Wildebeest are antelope, but they moo like cows and look like them too. They belong to the family of cow antelopes. They live together in herds and behave similarly to buffalo when in danger, though they have an alpha bull who takes charge and plants himself in front of you making terrifying noises — a "wild beast" indeed…

Warthogs

Warthogs are very similar to our wild boar, except with warts, which they've developed on their skin to protect against the sun. They have impressive, upward-curving outer tusks. What's really dangerous, though, are the razor-sharp lower canine teeth located inside. Wesley, one of our monitors, was attacked by a warthog that was grazing in the garden at Manyoni Camp and that he tried to chase off. He showed us the scar on his lower leg and told us what it's like being alone in the bush, bleeding badly, and having to wait for the paramedic to drive you to hospital… Warthogs live in sounders made up of several females with their young, who help one another. When in danger, they hold their little tails straight up like an antenna to warn everyone else. It looks very funny when they all run off with their tails raised, including the babies. The boars only join the sounder to mate and take no part in raising the young.

Impalas, Nyalas, Kudus

Impala, nyala and kudu are called "bush burgers", because they serve as food for many other animals. Impala look like our roe deer, while nyala and kudu resemble our red deer, only much bigger. In South Africa it's currently autumn, meaning rutting season, and they behave accordingly. So it can happen that a young male impala plants himself in front of the jeep and roars at it, seeing it as a rival. The posturing between them is also very amusing to watch. Impala have an alarm call that we always paid close attention to during our coffee breaks, since that's when we were allowed to climb down from the jeep. If we heard such a warning call, we immediately climbed straight back up onto the jeep!

We even had a wildlife collision with a nyala: the animal suddenly ran out of the bush, across the road, landed on the bonnet, somersaulted, and ran off unharmed into the bush on the other side of the road. Thankfully, neither the person nor the animal was hurt.

Wild Dogs

Camera traps and data collection

For every cheetah, lion, vulture, elephant, rhino, and every pangolin we encountered, we had to record the GPS data, which we then entered into files during our free time. This allows the animals' movement patterns to be tracked and their health to be monitored.

Camera traps also served a good purpose, because analysing the photos made it possible to determine exactly which animal was at a particular location, at what time, and for how long. Whenever we had to install a new camera trap, we first had to clear a large hole with a pickaxe, then ram the camera trap, which was mounted on a wooden post, into the ground with a heavy hammer, then cut small branches with a machete to camouflage the camera trap, and finally rub the camera with elephant dung. Why elephant dung? Elephants are the only animals in the bush that don't claim territories, since they're feeding all day long as they move about. So if the camera smells of elephant, no other animal needs to worry about its territory, and won't destroy the camera trap either. Otherwise it would be torn to pieces.

Pest control, showers

If you're going to live in the bush for 4 weeks, you can't be afraid of spiders, snakes, scorpions, cockroaches, rats, geckos, frogs and bats. I encountered all of the above in the garden, in the bedroom, in the kitchen, and especially in front of/in the shower. Luis, one of our volunteers, was our best pest controller and collected countless cockroaches every evening. Though you can be sure of one thing: wherever there's one cockroach, there are many more you just can't see.

Over time you automatically learn to put on sturdy shoes, always carry a head torch at night, and shake out your shoes before putting them on, otherwise there'll be a frog or some other creature inside.

It's especially unpleasant in the shower when a frog suddenly hops up out of the drain, and you think to yourself: I hope it doesn't jump that high… and you automatically clamp your legs together.

Braai

Braai is a sacred ritual in South Africa. Every Sunday afternoon, wood is collected for a campfire, around which everyone sits in the evening telling stories and grilling meat once the fire has burned down. Vegetarians have a hard time of it: if you don't like meat, you just get chicken…

The rules are strict: women aren't allowed to make the fire, and whoever starts a fire also has to see it through — you're absolutely not allowed to interfere.

At the last braai, Musa even made pap and chakalaka for us. That's a traditional Zulu dish. It tasted very good… pap is a bit like polenta, but made with white maize meal, and chakalaka is a bit like ratatouille, but very spicy.

There's something special about sitting by the campfire, telling each other stories, drinking a beer from a can, and hearing hyenas laughing behind the fence surrounding the camp… or other animal sounds.

My conclusion: 4 weeks in Zululand

My 4 weeks in South Africa were such an incredible experience. I probably can't describe it — you have to experience it yourself. What I particularly liked was that I wasn't just on a tourist safari, but actively contributed to protecting endangered animals through my work. If it weren't for my family, my friends and my dog, I would certainly have stayed longer.

I also really enjoyed life in the bush: very spartan and simple, not always without danger, but always authentic. You manage with so little luxury, and things you'd never have gone without suddenly become completely unimportant.

I came home with a feeling of deep gratitude towards this magnificent nature, these wonderful people, and, not least, these marvellous animals… and, of course, with unbelievable experiences in my head and in my heart.