Wildlife Conservation Gap Year Programs

07 Aug 2010 @ 7:32 AM

Wildlife Conservation Gap Year Programs

Wildlife conservation gap year programs have always been a popular gap year activity. No matter what your destination, you can be assured that somewhere out there there is an exciting Wildlife conservation gap year programs waiting to temp you into action. With lots of choice available to gapers however, it can be tricky to pick the right project for you.

The first thing you may want to consider when choosing your wildlife conservation gap year program is the destination. Asia and Africa are popular choices but then South America has alot to offer the wildlife conservation enthusiast too. The most popular destination when it comes to working with animals is definitely Africa through: by taking an Africa gap year you can be pretty certain that you will have access to some really interesting animals.

When you are sorting out your options, it pays to consider the type of wildlife conservation gap year program that you are interested in. For instance there is a very cool great white shark project in South Africa, however for some, this might be a little bit too scarey as you work very closely with great white sharks.

If the idea of braving sharks is not your cup of tea, what about roaming the plains of Africa on a field guide course? Field guides are the major force behind wildlife conservation efforts in African reserves and play a vital role in education and raising awareness about conservation issues, their role, is very customer facing and they are trained to deal with wildlife in natural settings. Exciting job for sure.

Not every one wants to gain a qualification on their gap year, and this does add extra costs to wildlife conservation gap year programs, so there are other options that are pretty exciting. Like the Namibia wildlife conservation experience programme from Xtreme Gap Year or their South Africa Big 5 conservation project. These get you close to large African animals and are arguably just as exciting as a field guide programme.

If you want to have a go with some really large animals, you have to take to the sea, in Mozambique there is a whaleshark conservation project, that is the mother of all sub aqua adventures. You will need some dive training to under take this particular wildlife conservation gap year program, but fortunately that is included in the cost of the course.

Another often overlooked way of enjoying a wildlife conservation gap year program is to complete your Divemaster course. This is a great way to learn about Marine conservation issues and work with customers educating and raising awareness about important issues.

If you are interested in any of these wildlife conservation gap year programs you can find them all on the Xtreme Gap Year Website, or contact them on info@xtreme-gap.com

Morzine Chalet