In brief
Get hands-on with monkeys and baboons in South Africa, helping to rehabilitate these cheeky creatures back to the wild.
This project is based in South Africa’s largest primate rehabilitation centre, and you will be caring for hundreds of orphaned babies, helping them on their journey back to the wild.
Primates in South Africa have a tough time of it – many are shot by farmers when raiding their land for food; many more are knocked down by cars.
These meetings with humans often leave baby monkeys injured and orphaned, with little chance of survival if not for this inspiring project.
Volunteers help nurse these cheeky monkeys back to health, helping to bottle feed them, prepare food for them, clean their cages, and even teach them to swim!
Other roles can involve monitoring, watching the monkeys play, sorting and sourcing food, and even becoming a surrogate parent, waking in the night to feed the youngest babies.
The work is hard, as these little ones are constantly demanding your attention. You will go to bed exhausted, but happy after having seen the amazing progress of the primates that day.
You will also get filthy – the monkeys and baboons will no doubt treat you as a human climbing frame to show their affection, but this means that they are often traipsing mud on you, and may even choose to use you as a toilet!
The setting for this project is second to none, in the rural African bush. Volunteers live together on-site, with their new primate-friends living pretty much next door. There is an on-site swimming pool (the primates love this too!), great socialisation area and plenty of space to relax.
