Intern Story - Ben Spearing

I have now spent ten weeks in Namibia at the Cheetah Conservation Fund, and I look back on my time and wonder how I was able to experience as much as I did in the short time I was here. The list of jobs and activities I have taken part in during my time here is much too long to list. The variety of work I have done ranges from scanning files into a database, to giving a cheetah eye drops. To be fair, much of the work that an intern does includes administrative tasks and cleaning the animal pens, but the activities that one could only do here at CCF make it all worth it. Being a part of releasing two cheetahs into the wild, performing a necropsy, counting herds of antelope on game drives, and observing cheetah surgeries are occurrences that can only be experienced at CCF. The Cheetah Conservation Fund does anything and everything it can to help the cheetah, and it takes hard work and passion from a lot of people to get the job done.

watching the dentist work on one of the cheetahs 

three oryx visiting a waterhole during a 12-hour waterhole count

This organization is something special. The staff members at CCF care deeply for the animals here and conservation as a whole. Saving the cheetah is not an easy job, and it does not have set hours. They sacrifice the time that they have off of work to come in and help whenever it is needed. It was truly motivating to see people from all over the world come together in Namibia to help save the cheetah as a species, and their dedication has reminded me why I pursue an education in conservation biology. This internship has only reinforced my career goals, and with the experience and work ethic I have gained here I hope I can move on to make a difference in the world of conservation.

giving the "centre feeding talk" to visitors