A brief glimpse into the daily routine of Sibongiseni Sithole, one of the habitat monitors at andBeyond Phinda Private Game Reserve.

Sibongiseni was a graduate from the most recent Community Conservation Course which seeks to upskill promising individuals from local communities and place them in roles which are directly involved in community empowerment and conservation in the area.

Among his diverse and demanding duties, Sibongiseni spends a lot of time monitoring and tracking pangolins on the reserve. It is a busy job, which requires early starts and late evenings, and an impressive amount of patience. These little scaly mammals are fast movers, and frequently cover vast distances through dense vegetation in search of food or safe burrows to rest in. It is often only after multiple triangulation efforts with telemetry that Sibongiseni is able to track the pangolin on foot, and even then, he often finds that by the time he gets to where the pangolin was, it has darted off in another direction through the dense woodlands of Phinda.

For Sibongiseni, and all of the members of the habitat team however, the hard work and long days are worth it to help protect and conserve these incredible African animals.
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This Community Conservation Course is a collaboration between Africa Foundation and the andBeyond Phinda Conservation Team.
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? Phinda Private Game Reserve
? KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
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