Why South Africa?

I've wanted to go to Africa for as long as I can remember. I am guessing that the desire to go there began in elementary school, when we watched those educational documentary type videos about African culture or wildlife. This desire has been fed as I've read books like Out of Africa and The Number One Ladies Detective Agency and watched National Geographic films about the Okavango Delta or cheetahs. I know I have a rather romanticized view of Africa and I do not know very much about the continent – but I want to know all about it.  It just so happens that I am also majoring in wildlife conservation. What wildlife person doesn’t want to go study wildlife in Africa?! Of all the programs offered by BYU’s International Study Programs, a field study fit best. It allows me to go to Africa and to study what I want. I know that a lot of connections must be made and work done, but hopefully by the end I will be able to do something with wildlife in South Africa.

            So what exactly does one do with wildlife? I would like to do something with ethology – the newest word in my vocabulary. Ethology is the study of animal behavior. I would like my project to be…Jane Goodall-esque. We’ll see how that works out, as I have very little experience. But I have to start somewhere! Some ideas I have for a project: look at captive behavior versus wild behavior; how reasonable is it to raise animals in captivity and then release them into the wild – will they be able to survive; what do zoos or rehabilitation centers do to teach or monitor behavior…I know that this might be hard to get into, in a country I’ve never been to, with people I’ve never met. So some other ideas I have involve looking more at conservation work. I know South Africa has a pretty good history of conservation, but what exactly has been done? It would be interesting to work with a conservation group and see how they raise awareness and what kind of projects they work on.

            We’ll see how it goes…