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Monday 08:00 - 17:00 Tuesday 08:00 - 17:00 Wednesday 08:00 - 17:00 Thursday 08:00 - 17:00 Friday 08:00 - 13:00

Legacy Wildlife Services - VetX

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Hartenbos
Legacy Wildlife Services - VetX

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Wildlife capture, conservation, and adventure collide! 🌿🦒
VetX Legacy Wildlife takes you behind the scenes of real wildlife veterinary work in South Africa.

Join our team! Wildlife & Veterinary Training, Conservation & Volunteering

22/10/2026

“Yup, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation…” 😂

Well, Hein is usually the one behind the wheel of our trusty Susan, putting his legendary off-road driving skills to good use while keeping up with the wildlife capture operations.

But this time, Susan decided she’d had enough. One ditch, one broken leaf spring, and suddenly Hein found himself riding in the back of a bakkie, on top of a black wildebeest, instead of behind the wheel. 😂🦓

Not exactly how the day was supposed to go!

And with Susan stranded in the middle of nowhere and a whole group of VetX students needing to get back to accommodation, we had a bit of a situation on our hands.

Luckily, Campbell from Tyremart Graaff-Reinet came to the rescue, organising a crew to head all the way out into the field to repair Susan and get everyone back on the road. Absolute legends! 🙌🛠️

Our vehicles take a serious beating doing what we do, and sometimes even the toughest members of the team need a little TLC.

Susan got a field repair. Hein got a front-row seat to the wildebeest. Everybody wins. 😂

29/09/2026

There is a lot more to relocation than capture.

Capture gets most of the attention. But getting an animal safely into your hands is only the beginning.

Wildlife relocation involves planning what happens before, during and after capture - from animal selection and capture method to handling, transport, release and everything that can change along the way.

For our delegates, that means we don’t want them to see only the exciting part.

We want them asking questions.

Why this capture method?
Why this vehicle?
How many animals can travel together?
What are the risks with this species?
What should we monitor?
What happens if something goes wrong?

Because understanding wildlife capture means understanding the entire operation, not simply learning how to dart an animal.

That’s where the real learning happens. 🌍

28/09/2026

Meet The Kid aka Trompie. 🐐

Because apparently we needed another member of the team…

Trompie is a little South African Boer goat whose mom sadly died shortly after giving birth. His farmer asked if we would take him and, well… anyone who knows us knows there was never really going to be another answer. 😂

There was just one small problem.

We were in the middle of a very busy week of wildlife captures.

So naturally, Trompie came too.

For the next week, our capture schedule included wildlife relocations, early mornings, long days… and strategically planned milk breaks in between.🍼

He travelled with the team, supervised operations, received an entirely unreasonable amount of attention from our VetX delegates and quickly discovered that if you scream loudly enough, approximately ten veterinary students will immediately come running.

An important life lesson to learn early.

He has now officially retired from fieldwork and moved onto the farm as the newest member of our slightly unconventional little tribe. 🤎

His name is Trompie. Although Hein has already started calling him Bliksem, which probably tells you everything you need to know about how this is going 🙈🤪.

We are fairly certain this tiny, innocent-looking creature is going to cause an extraordinary amount of kak on the farm.

And we are equally certain we will let him get away with most of it.

Welcome home, Trompie. 🐐🤎

From orphaned Boer goat → honorary VetX crew → professional troublemaker.

We give it three weeks before he owns the place.

28/09/2026

No lecture hall today. 👀

One of the things we love most about VetX is watching everything students learn in theory suddenly start making sense in the field.

Why do we position an animal a certain way?
Why blindfold them?
What changes when multiple animals are transported together?
What are we monitoring?
When do we intervene?
And why can something that looks simple actually require an entire team?

Wildlife medicine and capture come with variables that are very difficult to reproduce in a classroom.

So when opportunities arise during our courses, our delegates join us in the field - learning first hand from wildlife vets, capture teams and wildlife professionals who are doing this work every day.

Sometimes the classroom just happens to have four wheels .. 😂

27/09/2026

A wildlife capture day is rarely just one big exciting moment. 🚁

It’s early starts. Long drives. Waiting. Planning. Changing plans. Moving animals. Monitoring. Loading. Transport. More waiting… and usually a lot of dust.

For our VetX delegates, being part of capture operations means seeing the whole process - not just the moment an animal is captured.

Because successful wildlife relocation depends on far more than one person or one technique. It takes experienced pilots, capture teams, veterinarians, ground crews, transporters, reserve staff and plenty of communication between them all.

And somewhere in the middle of it all, our students find themselves squeezed into the back of a vehicle with a few antelope wondering how exactly this became a normal Wednesday. 😂

Wildlife capture isn’t always glamorous. But that’s exactly why experiencing the reality of it matters.

27/09/2026

The animals might be why everyone comes to Africa…

…but the people are a pretty big part of what makes VetX special. 🤎

Three weeks together means early mornings, long capture days, road trips, muddy boots, questionable amounts of coffee, lots of learning and usually a few moments of “is this actually happening?!”

Our delegates arrive from different countries, universities and stages of their veterinary careers - and very quickly become part of the team.

Because some of the best learning happens between the big moments: sitting in the back of a capture vehicle, asking questions on the drive home, discussing what went right (and what didn’t), and learning from the people around you.

Come for the wildlife. Leave with a whole lot more. 🌍

12/08/2026

One family group. One relocation. A new home. 🦌🌍

Relocating an entire sable family group takes planning, precision and a team working together from the first dart to the final release.

Each animal is individually immobilised, monitored and assessed before transport while the bigger picture remains just as important: moving the group safely and efficiently as a unit.

For our VetX delegates, operations like this bring wildlife veterinary medicine to life.

Chemical immobilisation. Anaesthetic monitoring. Safe handling. Transport. Wildlife management. And finally, one of the best parts of the job - watching the family step out together into their new home.

This is what learning wildlife medicine in the field looks like.

Would you want to be part of a relocation like this? 👇

02/08/2026

Wildlife Vet School: Loading a Dan-Inject dart 💉

Could you prepare a dart in under 60 seconds while the capture team is waiting?

Every wildlife immobilisation starts long before the trigger is pulled.

Before a veterinarian can safely dart an animal, every drug must be accurately calculated, measured and loaded into the dart. There are no shortcuts because every decision can influence the success of the immobilisation and the welfare of the animal.

At VetX, this is one of the very first practical skills our delegates master.

Dan-Inject darts are reusable remote drug delivery darts used with a Dan-Inject CO₂-powered dart r***e. Each dart contains two separate chambers:

💉 A chamber holding the immobilisation drugs.
💨 A manually pressurised air chamber.

The air inside the dart doesn’t launch it, that’s the r***e’s job. Instead, it provides the pressure needed to inject the medication after impact.

Sounds straightforward…

Until you’re standing in the field.

Before a dart can even be assembled, our delegates must:

• know the animal species and drug combination.
• Calculate multiple drug doses.
• Convert those doses into the correct volumes.
• Select the correct dart and needle.
• Load the medications accurately.
• Pressurise the dart correctly.
• Prepare it safely for the r***e.

And they quickly learn there’s rarely time to reach for a calculator.

During a capture operation, the helicopter is in the air, the ground team is in position, and the opportunity can disappear in seconds.

That’s why we teach our delegates to individually perform the calculations in their heads and prepare darts efficiently, without ever compromising on accuracy. A skill they will take with them for the rest of their veterinary career.

Because every experienced wildlife veterinarian makes it look effortless, but behind every perfectly prepared dart are countless calculations, repetition and practice.

Wildlife medicine isn’t just about taking the shot. It’s about everything that happens beforehand.

🦏 Wildlife Vet School

Address

R328
Hartenbos
6695

Opening Hours

Monday	08:00 - 17:00
Tuesday	08:00 - 17:00
Wednesday	08:00 - 17:00
Thursday	08:00 - 17:00
Friday	08:00 - 13:00

Telephone

+27 822931803

Website

http://www.umkhondobig5.co.za/

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