South Africa is renowned for its safari’s and game reserves, but in order to ensure the safety of the animals and the safety of the people that visit them, there needs to be game rangers. The job of a game ranger is to ensure that the animals are protected from poachers. They do not usually interfere with nature, meaning if an animal attacks another one, they will not step in.

The game ranger is usually given an area of land that he or she is responsible for protecting. They may also have other rangers working with them. They have many responsibilities including ensuring the day to day health and well-being of the game, research and monitoring, game capture and introductions, population management, burning programs, infrastructure and equipment maintenance, public relations, environmental education, and crucially, local community relations, liaison and involvement. They also have a certain amount of administration work to do.

The job is not for the faint hearted but can be extremely rewarding and will open up your eyes to a whole new world.

The salary is not usually particularly high but with the experience you get and the benefits, it is well worth doing if only for a short time.