Volunteer with Elephant and wildlife project in Kenya

To share your love for wild animals in wildlife conservation volunteer abroad:

If you are one of the animal lovers who want to work with the animals, this is the best volunteer Kenya wildlife project you can imagine. In this project, you are not working in any private game park where people are running a private business. However, in Kenya volunteer programs wildlife, you will be directly working inside Kenya’s most famous national park while sharing your passion for injured, orphaned, and baby animals.

A daily Africa safari experience

This is one of the wildlife volunteer opportunities abroad in which you will be patrolling the amazing national park 3-4 hours every day to search for traps and injured animals. To gain experience in volunteer wildlife Kenya, you will be driving deep into the national park with other ranges giving you the unforgettable safari experience of the life time. People are paying up to $200 per day for the safari wildlife volunteer abroad experience that you are enjoying every day.

Cultural learning and immersion

When you volunteer in the Elephant Project in Kenya, you will also be teaching English and the importance of wildlife, wildlife conservation, and nature conservation to local school kids. This will provide you opportunities to interact and immerse in local culture.

An experience like no other

Imagine you are living in a ranger house inside the national park with the community of local rangers. This is a very rustic experience you had never experienced before. This is the experience of living in rural area.

Understand and study animal behaviors

Are you interested in animal behaviors? Do you want to know how they behave? If yes, then you might be interested in the various studies going on. In a wildlife conservation volunteer abroad free program, you can be a part of these studies and observe interesting and unbelievable behaviors that animals show.

A Tentative Daily Schedule

7:30 AM - Wake up and get ready for breakfast

8 AM - This is your breakfast time! Take breakfast and get ready for the patrolling

8-12 PM - Patrolling with rangers: for the 4 hours, you will be patrolling with the rangers to find the injured animals, illegal traps, and treat animals nicely

12-2 PM – Lunch time! Relax and rest in this free time

2-4 PM – Travel to local nearby villages, teach English, and the importance of wildlife and conservation to the local middle and high school students by joining wildlife volunteer abroad free programs.

5 PM -- End of the day. You can rest in this free time. You can also go to the reassurance located inside the park.

Price and Date

Volunteer with Elephant and wildlife project in Kenya starts every Monday of each month. However, if there are travel constrains, you can begin any project on any day.

Price: Volunteer In Kenya

Global Crossroad provides high-quality and highly affordable volunteer programs in Kenya. Since we focus on the humanitarian aspect of our business, we strive to keep volunteering costs low. The application fee and registration fee for joining the volunteering program offered by Global Crossroad is $299.

Besides the application fee, you will be paying a weekly fee of the chosen program. You will be able to pay this fee directly to our country coordinator. After receiving the fee, he will allocate the amount to the host family, in-country support offered by Global Crossroad, and the project operations. Therefore, your fees will benefit only those who really deserve it rather than the company itself.

Here is the weekly fee breakdown:

• One week: $450
• Two weeks: $900
• Three weeks: $1350
• Four weeks: $1800

Airport pick up and transfer in Private Taxi (200 miles) $180

Compulsory insurance $3.69 daily

The fee covers the following:

• Room (3 local meals a day)
• Accommodation in ranger house
• Local Support

What the fee does not cover:

• Flight Expenses
• Visa Expenses
• Personal expenses

Your activities in Elephant and wildlife volunteer project in Kenya:

Patrolling: After breakfast, you will start your day. The Rangers begin working at 8:30 in the morning, driving through the reserve and registering wildlife sightings. There are stone markers along the paths, each with a number.

Volunteers (not necessarily every day) mark the animals sighted, corresponding to the number. There are large notice boards, on which are entered the wildlife sightings, so that tourists can plan their tour of the reserves accordingly.

Treat Injured animals: while patrolling, volunteers or rangers may spot the injured animal. Once they do, they call the team of veterinarians. You will be travelling with a veterinarian to treat the injured animals. You will contribute to th recovery of injured animals by helping the veterinarian and local staff in terms of providing treatment to the injured animals.

Maintenance works: On the rounds with the Rangers, volunteers engage in maintenance work, e.g. clearing away stray trees or branches, filling potholes, renewing signs, and markings or general improvisations.

Removing Traps: The protected area has, unfortunately, several poacher traps. The rangers and volunteers search for these traps and remove them. These patrols are done on foot. If injured wild animals are spotted, a veterinarian is called for and the animal is treated. One of the tasks also includes chasing the cattle within any protected area.

Teach in Local Schools: The Rangers also conduct environmental education activities in the villages that are close to the protected areas. In schools, videos are shown and discussions about animals are held with the students. Volunteers can conduct these, if they wish to; they need to be proactive about it.

Important Information

• Volunteers should carry solid sturdy boots and long pants as there are snakes, scorpions, and harmful insects.
• Volunteers should not walk around alone in the national park.
• Volunteers should bring a torch and a solar charger to charge their electrical devices.

Room and food

While volunteer with Elephant and wildlife project in Kenya, you will stay at a ranger house. There are 8 ranger houses. This is one of the parts of the compound where the wildlife rangers also live (the rangers live at separate houses). The compound is guarded and safe.

The volunteer house has 3 rooms. The volunteers share a room, shower, and toilet. A chef cooks food for rangers and volunteers. You will be provided with local Kenya food.

The Kenya food incudes Ugali (Cornmeal Staple), Irio (Mashed Peas and Potato Mix), Githeri (Beans and Corn), Kenyan Pilau (Spiced Rice), Wali wa Nazi (Coconut Rice), Sukuma Wiki (Collard Greens / Kale), and Kenyan Stew. Within the villages, there are a few shops that only sell basic groceries.

Tsavo East National Park

When you join the elephant volunteer project in Kenya, you will be working in the Tsavo National Park. While volunteering, you will have the opportunities to see and explore one of the world’s most beautiful national parks with hundreds of wildlife and bird species.

Tsavo East National Park is one of the oldest and largest parks in Kenya at 13,747 square kilometres. Situated in a semi-arid area and previously known as the Taru Desert, it was originated in April 1948, and is located near the town of Voi in the Taita-Taveta County of the former Coast Province.

The park is divided into East and West sections by the A109 road and a railway. Named after the Tsavo River, which flows from the West to the East through the national park, it borders the Chyulu Hills National Park and the Mkomazi Game Reserve in Tanzania.

Most of the park consists of semi-arid grasslands and savanna. It is considered one of the world's biodiversity strongholds. Besides this, its popularity is mostly due to the vast amounts of diverse wildlife that can be seen, including the famous 'big five' consisting of Masai lion, black rhino, cape buffalo, elephant and leopard. The park is also home to a great variety of bird life such as the black kite, crowned crane, lovebirds, and the sacred ibis.

Tsavo East National Park provides undeveloped wilderness homes to vast numbers of animals. Famous are the Tsavo lions, a population of lions, where adult males often lack manes entirely. In totality, there are about 675 lions in the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem.

The slightly larger Tsavo East is generally flat, with dry plains across which the Galana River flows. Other features include the Yatta Plateau and Lugard Falls.

Tsavo West National Park is more mountainous and wetter than its counterpart, with swamps, Lake Jipe, and the Mzima Springs. It is known for birdlife and for its large mammals. It is also home to a black rhino sanctuary.

Birds

Over 500 bird species have been recorded in the area, including ostriches, kestrels, buzzards, starlings, weaver birds, kingfishers, hornbills, secretary birds, and herons.

Poaching

Between 2001 and 2006, more than 100 lions had been killed in the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem. Most of them had been speared by young men. The poachers usually do not face serious consequences. In contrast, the game scouts who arrested offenders have been punished by the community. While volunteering in this wildlife project in Kenya, you will involve in many activities that protects wildlife from poachers. This way, you will share your hand in conservation efforts.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

You fly to Nairobi, Kenya. We will transfer you to the project site. which is about 350 KM (6 hours) drive. You will pass through many local villages. You can arrive at any time because in the first step of this volunteer abroad wildlife project, our coordinator will bring you to his house and will introduce the project to you. From there, he will transfer you to the project site.

Our Kenya elephant and wildlife project starts on every Monday of each month. Since there are 4 starting dates in each month, you can participate in your Kenya wildlife service volunteer project according to your convenience.

Though there is no internet in the national park, the Internet is still accessed via mobile phone networks. If you have smartphones, you can use the Internet easily. If you carry a laptop, you can purchase and use the USB modem stick for about 10 EUR.

In general, laundry is washed by hand in Kenya. While you volunteer abroad with wildlife, you will get water to wash your cloth in the projects.