FOOD PREP
Preparing food for the animals is a big part of a volunteer's daily work. There are two major feedings per day: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. You will also sort the food, off-load it when it arrives, keep the food prep area tidy and do the washing for the animals (towels, blankets, cloths...)
BOTTLE PREPARATION AND FEEDING
Our wildlife infants often require scheduled bottle feeding. This is the responsibility of the volunteers. The babies are fed, and the amount of formula they consume is recorded at each shift. We keep detailed records of what our infants are eating and drinking so we can monitor their health closely while they are growing and developing.
ENCLOSURE CLEANING
It is of the utmost importance that our baby enclosures are scrubbed and disinfected to perfection daily. Any leftover waste can lead to illness for our animals, so we rely on our volunteers and their "elbow grease" to keep the animals healthy. The animals are taken out of the cage during cleaning, then the cage is scrubbed with soap and disinfectant from top to bottom, fencing to floor, branches and walls.
CLINIC AND QUARANTINE
Volunteers will be responsible for assisting in the daily cleaning of the clinic and quarantine facilities, and the feeding and watering of the patients, if there are any, and learn about safe and hygienic methods of working in these facilities. If interested, volunteers may participate in observing surgeries and any other clinic duties. All volunteer activities in the clinic and quarantine will be supervised by staff.
HARVESTING
Our rehabilitation animals in the main camps have access to an abundance and variety of native and natural foods to eat, on top of their supplemented food. These foods not only supply nutrition, but can also serve medicinal purposes. Our babies and our animals in introduction enclosures do not have access to these foods so we must harvest them daily from around the property so they also may have access to their natural diet.
FIELD WORK
Riverside prides itself with being one-of-a-kind in it's methods of scientifically studied reintroduction methods and high success rate of releases. With 18 successful baboon and Vervet releases under our belt, we stand out as the most esteemed reintroduction-oriented Primate rehabilitation centre in the world. This requires the assistance of many volunteers to do hundreds of hours of behavioural observations, take flora and fauna surveys on release sites, erect release enclosures and bush camps, and much much more! It's hard work, but is the most rewarding part of working in rehabilitation.
WALKS TO THE RIVER
A very important duty of the Riverside volunteer is to ensure that the Primates under rehabilitation get to experience their natural environment every day. On top of the daily harvested natural foods and browse the babies will get from the volunteers, they will also be taken every day down to the river to climb and forrage (and swim!) on their own, with the volunteers there just to supervise. It is also important for the young Primates to learn to move as a troop, as in the wild they will spand much of their days walking with their troop in search of food.