HOW TO GET INVOLVED

RESEARCH DRIVES

The Mashatu Research Program offers visitors the opportunity to join researchers on specialist drives during which study animals are located and information conveyed about the research process, the animals’ behavioural ecology and contentious conservation issues are highlighted and discussed. This is a unique opportunity for visitors to experience a day in the life of a researcher and to make a contribution to a wildlife research project. Guests are charged an additional sum of money to partake in either the Ivory or Predator Drive, all of which goes toward the respective research project.

Ivory Experience
US$ 40.00 per person per drive (2009)
US$ 45.00 per person per drive (2010)
(min. 2 guests/drive)

Jeanetta Selier is an elephant specialist researching the ecology of the elephant population in the Tuli. She has been studying this elephant population for many years now and provides the Ivory Experience on Mashatu as a means to fund her research. Your morning experience with her will include getting up close and personal with the resident herds of Mashatu and gaining insight into their dynamics and behaviour. You will learn how to identify the various herds, share their personalities and traits; something very few visitors to Africa are able to do.

Predator Research Drive
US$ 40.00 per person per drive (2009)
US$ 45.00 per person per drive (2010)
(min. 2 guests/drive)

Andrei Snyman is the predator researcher of the Tuli, specializing in lions and leopards. He has extensive experience in working with large carnivores and has studied the lion population dynamics in the Kruger National Park, South Africa for the past few years. He is continuing the leopard research and conducting a lion research project focusing on the socio organisation of lions in Tuli. Join him on an afternoon predator research drive where he will share with you the extraordinary lives of leopards and lions from a researcher’s perspective, as you search for these charismatic large predators. Come experience for yourself a taste in the life of a predator researcher and how he aims to better understand the King-of-Beasts and the Prince-of-Stealth.

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