Zimbabwe Lion Rehabilitation - Victoria Falls

You will work on our lion breeding and rehabilitation programme as well as providing conservation education to the local community. Your time will be divided between these areas, which are outlined below:

The Lion Rehabilitation Programme
250,000 lions used to roam the African continent. Latest estimates are that between 12,000 and 15,000 remain. The end objective of the Victoria Falls lion project is the reintroduction of captive-bred lions into the wild by means of a three-stage process, which you will learn more about during your involvement with the project.

This breeding and rehabilitation project is revolutionary and is supported by the world’s leading ecologists in this field. You have the unique chance to walk and work with African Lions, to be involved in in-depth research and data-collection activities, as well as to work with the project staff towards the eventual release of lions back into the wild. Spending time with the lions in the wild each day is an essential part of the cub’s upbringing. If the cubs are to be released into the wild it is important that they spend time out in a natural environment - they need to adapt to it, learn from it, understand, observe, feel and smell the wild.

Since the start of this intensive programme, a marked increase in the Lions’ awareness of their natural surroundings has been noted, as well as an improvement in their hunting skills. The larger cubs are now able to take down smaller game species whilst out on walks and these abilities are being enhanced each day whilst under the supervision of volunteers. These are invaluable discoveries, which have earned the project further support for their pioneering endeavours.

You will be joining the team of professional guides and other dedicated volunteers, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the king of beasts and assist in gathering vital information that will facilitate their eventual release back into the wild.

Please Note: In order to raise vital funding and awareness for the continuation of the lion release efforts there is also a commercial tourist aspect to the lion programme in Victoria Falls. The lion programme offers tourists the chance to walk with the lions through the wild and experience the programme first-hand. As a result tourists might accompany you on a portion of your lion walks as a volunteer. 

We believe that your work would be incomplete without involvement in the local community. This new scheme is an exciting development initiative, which may involve you working 1.5 to 2 days a week within local schools carrying out important conservation workshops with the children, who are an absolute pleasure to teach. We firmly believe that one of the best sustainable solutions for solving the conservation crisis, that this country is currently facing, is by educating the local children and communities.

You will find that the children flock to the lessons and look forward both to the interaction with the volunteers and to the chance to learn more about what is going on around them in the conservation arena. We are keen to help educate local communities about conservation and their wildlife heritage, and are extremely excited by the positive results that have already been reaped in the Victoria Falls programme.

The aim of this scheme is to educate children on the following topics:

• The diversity of plants and animals
• A brief outline of the history of the world and evolution
• What DNA is, where we find it and what it does
• Food chains, food groups and medicines from plants and animals
• Poaching and the extinction and endangered species
• Class activities

Please note that this syllabus is a guideline and depending on the needs of the project, may change without prior notice.

Alongside your involvement with the lions and our conservation education initiatives, volunteers may also have the unique chance to visit the sister project in the midlands area of Zimbabwe. It is a 5 day trip and travels through Hwange and Matopos enroute to the project; whilst at the project there will opportunities to enjoy a number of different excursions including an elephant ride, elephant swim, boat cruise, etc; these additional activities will be at your own cost. Please note that this 5-day tour is only available to volunteers joining the project for a 4 week placement and is an optional activity, which is subject to a sufficient amount of volunteer interest in order to go ahead. The cost varies depending on the number of volunteers wishing to participate, but will typically cost around US$500 per person payable locally.
 

Your project managers are responsible for organizing your daily activities, which will vary from day to day depending on whether you are with the lions or working with the local community. Please note; you may not be working with the lions on some days although these will certainly be in the minority, due to the conservation education that takes place in the local schools approximately once a week. 

A typical day with the lions may look like this:

06.30 – 09.00: Join a lion walk with clients, or spend time in camp with the younger cubs, preparing their feed

09:00: Breakfast

10:00–12.00: Duties that may include enclosure-cleaning, data capture, feeding the cubs or heading to the local community development initiative.

12:00: Lunch

14:00-18.00: Afternoon duties activities may include community project work, games and education with local children, lion interaction or enclosure maintenance.

19:00: Dinner

Please note: Itineraries and activities are subject to change.