Kellie Sugihara - South Africa

This summer, I had the privilege of traveling to the Eastern Cape of South Africa. My goal was to gain hands-on experience with wildlife to help me in my future career as a zoo veterinarian. I chose South Africa because I would be able to see animals roam freely in their natural habitat. I spent my first two weeks doing a course called Vets Go Wild on Amakhala Game Reserve. My last week was spent at Tanglewood Reserve where I learned about the ecological restoration projects in place to create a conservation corridor in the area. 

Vets Go Wild:

Vets Go Wild is a 16-day veterinary training course designed to give students hands-on experience with African wildlife. They also educate students on the conservation efforts in the area to rewild the land. I had a combination of classroom lectures and in the field practicals. I learned about topics like challenges to conservation in South Africa, anatomy and physiology, chemical immobilization, pharmacology, and wildlife diseases. We also learned about the important issue of rhino poaching by watching a movie called “Stroop,” which forever changed my feelings towards full moon nights. For my field duties, I helped sedate, transport, and treat animals on Amakhala reserve. I gained experience calculating anesthetic drug dosages, administering dart wound treatments and vitamin injections, drawing blood, placing intravenous catheters, monitoring vital signs, and reversing anesthetic drugs. Some of the veterinary procedures I participated in included rhino dehorning and relocating animals to other reserves to improve genetic diversity of their herds. One of the most memorable moments of my trip was when I volunteered to help on the ropes team to capture a giraffe and instead got dragged along the African savanna :(. I got to work with many incredible animals including white rhinos, giraffes, lions, red hartebeests, zebras, eland, kudu, nyala, and so many more. I gained so many veterinary skills this summer, but more importantly, I was able to travel halfway across the world and experience a new country's culture. It is truly eye-opening to be immersed into a culture that is different from your own, and I hope to be able to continue doing this in the future. This experience was invaluable and has assured me that I want to pursue veterinary medicine working with wildlife once I graduate. 

Tanglewood Reserve:

My third week was spent at Tanglewood Reserve. This is a huge plot of land that was once used for farming, but is now in the process of being restored as part of a conservation corridor. The end goal is to be able to have the big five (lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, and cape buffalo) coexist with the ecosystem on the property. I worked with the reserve ecologists to place soil sensors, conduct drone mapping of the landscape, and even participate in a bat emergence survey where we sat outside a cave at sunset and hand counted the number of bats that came out! The staff at Tanglewood were so incredibly welcoming, friendly, and knowledgeable. I am so grateful for my time there and would love to return in the future.