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VOLUNTEER TO HELP ELEPHANTS & BEARS WITH WILDLIFE SOS
By volunteering at the Wildlife SOS Rescue Facilities, you will make a major contribution to the welfare of bears and elephants in India. The majority of the programme fees will go directly to the centre, thus providing a critical source of funding for future work. Working with the local community and the inspiring people who run Wildlife SOS is an opportunity of a lifetime!
VOLUNTEER DUTIES: As a volunteer, you will spend your time working with the bears and elephants at our Agra centres. Duties include building hammocks for Sloth bears to rest in, constructing enrichment structures for play and assisting keepers on daily afternoon feedings. In addition, you will also enjoy the opportunity to visit our elephants at the Elephant Conservation and Care Centre.
Your first day at the centre will consist of an orientation session and a full campus tour. The orientation will cover both logistical information regarding how the centre is run and educational material detailing the fundamentals of animal welfare and environmental basics. You will be trained and supervised by the experienced animal keepers at the centre as well as the education officers. For your safety and the safety of the animals, please note that direct physical contact is not a part of the programme experience.
Each day is a little bit different at Wildlife SOS and volunteer activities may include the following:
Food preparation for bears/elephants including assisting keepers in cutting fruits/loading / making enrichment treats.
Distribution of food to the bears
Cleaning, and maintenance of the enclosures and facilities
Making enrichment for animals like hammocks, honey logs, fodder balls etc.
Gardening / plantation / nursery maintenance and development.
No previous experience is required, but you will need to be willing and enthusiastic and able to tolerate high temperatures and humidity, work well within a team and be adaptable to living and working in a group. To apply for more information, or register your interest click here: https://action.wildlifesos.org/page/89710/subscribe/1
TINY MALE LEOPARD CUB FOUND NEAR ONION STORAGE, REUNITED WITH MOTHER
How Does it Feel to Reunite a Cub? Contrary to regular encounters where leopard cubs are mostly found in sugarcane fields or plantations, this young male cub was discovered near an onion storage house. The cub was rescued by the Forest Department and brought to the #wildlifesos Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centr, Junnar for a medical assessment.
Every time a cub arrives at our centre or has to be rescued, our veterinary team keeps in mind the sensitivity of the situation. Dr. Chandan Sawane, Veterinary Officer for Wildlife SOS, reveals how each experience with a baby leopard evokes the same feeling of anxiety that humans feel in unexpected scenarios.
Read our full blog to discover what happened to this young (approx 6wk old) cub - click the link below.
Climate Change & Human Wildlife Conflict
Climate change is reshaping environments around the world. Rising sea levels, extreme drought, disastrous floods, melting glaciers and even extinction of wildlife species are some of the crucial consequences of climate change. Its impact on global flora and fauna populations is being documented, and has now come to be widely known. A new research conducted recently has shed light on yet another adverse effect of climate change: an increase in human-wildlife conflict.
Take the case of the Bharal (or blue sheep) and Snow leopards residing in the Himalayas, for instance. Long-term climate change has degraded and shrunk the alpine grasslands that form their habitat. As a result, the Bharal are forced to move to the regions at lower elevation that are closer to villages to forage on their crops, which creates a conflict for resources. Snow leopards have also followed their prey into human-populated areas, resulting in livestock predation and retaliatory killings by locals. This is how climate change has put the entire food web in jeopardy.
Climate change has altered the timing and duration of seasons, thereby influencing wildlife migration and breeding. Sudden encounters with wild animals are therefore on the rise, since it is becoming more difficult to predict the species’ presence at a given time and location.
https://wildlifesos.org/animals/climate-change-and-human-wildlife-conflict/