Anti-Poaching & Conservation In South Africa

Thank you to our Donors, Fundraisers and Supporters! 

Striving for wildlife monitoring excellence and anti-poaching campaigns

Written by Zoe Biggs - Program Manager, GVI Limpopo

There’s been some exciting updates from the GVI Limpopo team since our last report.

Thanks to our generous donors and supporters, we’ve been able to purchase more equipment to add to our wildlife monitoring arsenal! Since our last update, we’ve managed to secure funds to purchase a new battery charging station (that can hold and charge a whopping 40 batteries at a time), plus 150 new AA rechargeable batteries that will be used to power our reserve-wide camera trapping study, as well as a VHF collar to be fitted to one of our elusive spotted hyena clan members! 

With the additional batteries and charging station, we will be able to monitor the focus species more effectively and consistently on the reserve, providing reserve partners (landowners and reserve management) more in-depth information and analysis on wildlife movement, abundance, richness, and diversity, allowing for more effective management and conservation of the reserve’s wildlife.

With the ability to set up all our camera traps in the field with the additional sponsored batteries, this will not only significantly increase the amount of area on the reserve being monitored, but also increase the frequency of us recording spatial utilization, as well as potentially behavioural and interactive data on our focus species and monitoring of the local rhino population. These funds allow us to support the anti-rhino poaching units with equipment and gear that they need to be effective - this includes camera traps to monitor locations and movements of the rhinos, rechargeable battery packs for communication devices to maintain contact with the anti-poaching units and general supplies and medicines.

None of this could be possible without the support of both our participants and partners in the field, as well as our alumni, friends, family, and partners all around the world. Since we reopened our hub in January 2021 after the COVID pandemic closed our doors, our work and impact in the area has continued to increase, and we can’t wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for our program!

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much for your support and engagement in our projects. 

Love, 

The GVI Limpopo Team