Goderich District Collegiate Institute, South Huron District High School and St. Marys District Collegiate and Vocational Institute
1-Week Wildlife Conservation Research Expedition to South Africa
March Break 2026
Expedition Dates: March 16th to 22nd, 2026 (excluding travel time)
Dear Parents and Students,
We are providing our high school students the incredible opportunity to spend
one week with international academics and scientists to conduct hands-on wildlife conservation research with Operation Wallacea (www.opwall.com) in South Africa. Operation Wallacea (Opwall) is a network of academics from European and North American universities, who design and implement biodiversity and wildlife conservation management research expeditions. This school
expedition offers students opportunities to meet other high schools and to network with professional environmental and wildlife conservation scientists, to participate in real-world scientific fieldwork research projects and be trained as research assistants.
We invite Parents and Students to attend a presentation about this
school expedition to South Africa on Tuesday, September 16th, 2025 at 6:00 PM
either in person at SHDHS or virtually at the following link:
For full information on the school trip, please visit Operation Wallacea’s South Africa website
here.
Students will have the following opportunities:
Terrestrial Site –Gondwana Game Reserve
This expedition begins in in Gondwana Game Reserve. Groups Gondwana will spend part of their time in the bush completing mammal distribution surveys from vehicles using DISTANCE sampling and emptying camera traps. Foot based surveys with armed safety officers are completed to assess levels of vegetation browsing and grazing from big herbivores to determine the carrying capacity of the reserve. The bird communities are also being monitored from foot-based point count surveys.
The other part of the week is spent back in the camp learning about African wildlife conservation and management and the safety procedures needed to operate in wildlife reserve with large game species. In addition, they will be learning how to track animals, identify some of the main tree, bird and mammal species encountered and helping with analysis of camera trap footage. Thus, some of the students will spend the morning in camp with briefings and lectures followed by the afternoon in the bush, whilst the rest will spend the morning in the bush and the afternoon on briefings and lectures, alternating each day. The schedule is full but there is time for the students, either individually or in small groups, to prepare a short presentation based around information they have learnt across the week and these presentations will be given on the Thursday evening.
The research activities in both reserves include helping with the following:
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Herbivore impact on vegetation: This is assessed by completing a number of surveys such as animal impact, woody vegetation presence and dung presence within quadrats selected randomly around the reserve.
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Estimating large mammal populations: Completing distance based large mammal surveys from vehicles to estimate abundance of the target species.
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Bird surveys: Completing foot based point counts and transects to determine bird diversity.
Full information on the school trip is available here:
To confirm your spot, please fill out the below form and further information on how to provide a CAD $400 deposit will be provided (this is refundable until the school group is finalized):
Kind Regards,
Ms. Melanie Ball - Goderich District Collegiate Institute
Ms. Monica Ryan - St. Marys District Collegiate and Vocational Institute
CC. Operation Wallacea Ontario