Wildlife Forensic Academy
The Wildlife Forensic Academy is located in Buffelsfoutain, South Africa and is the world’s first Wildlife forensics academy. At the time I went to the academy it was only open for a year. I was apart of the second class and was the first American to attend the entirety academy. Through my time there I was able to experience in person lectures, hands-on training and real-life experiences.
The academy offers a two-week course, a four-week course, and a extended internship. Within the two-week course you will be introduced to a wide range of wildlife crime cases and the methods to investigate them. You will be put in a variety of scenarios, focusing on the challenges and crime types in South Africa. Through my time there I learned about the local ecology, history and gained survival skills.
Here I was able to apply what I learned at Waynesburg as well as expand my understanding on how to correctly identify and document forensic traces and build a crime scene document that I presented in a mock trail. During the two-week course you learn about how the principles of forensic science, such as the integrity of evidence, crime scene documentation as well as evidence recovery and analysis are used in wildlife crime investigations. The academy offers a chance to experience practical exercises in preservation, documentation, and analysis using the state-of-the-art crime scene facility at Buffelsfountain game and nature reserve, South Africa.
During my time at the academy I also experienced other disciplines that are important to wildlife crime such as forensic veterinary pathology, injured wildlife management, anti-poaching and more. I was also able to experience a range of educational excursions and activities that helped further my understand of the different landscape, organizations, and activities happening in South Africa.
After the two-week course I stayed an additional two weeks at the academy to make up the four-week course. During the four-week course I assisted with veterinary activities, wildlife capture and immobilization, the handling and containment of animals, anti-poaching training as well as information on veterinary pharmacology.
During this training you get a further understanding about the veterinary role as well as pathology and stress related mortalities. I also got exposure to what the anti poaching rangers do as well as weapon handling. This is important to know just incase you were to be in contact with a poach one to make the weapon safe but also if you need to defend you self. You can see in these pictures we learned about firing different types of guns as well as what they do when you get shot.
During the four-week course we went on a road trip around south Africa to see the different landscapes within the rural and urban areas to understand different conservation principles. We learned about different protected area systems, socio-economic issues as well as human-wildlife conflict.
I then stayed and additional Two months interning at the local SPCA. Here is where I learned more about human and wildlife conflict. Rehabilitated animals as well as did investigations on two live cases. In total I cunducted 20 post-mortems on different animals and was the lead investigator on a seal skinning incident and a shark finning incident. I even created a basic post-mortem guide to help future academy students.
