Activities In the Area

Learn about Timbavati Private Game Reserves Anti-Poaching K9 Unit - See how man's best friend is soon becoming some of our endangered species best friend too! Don't let their cuteness fool you - these guys play a key role in the prevention and interception of poachers who have pushed endangered species populations - most notably in the last few years, Rhino - to dwindling numbers. Get to meet and witness the dogs on the front-line of the fight against poaching and conservation of endangered animals and especially, the White Rhino. 

From the Timbavati Game Reserve Website :

"The Timbavati stretches 40kms from North to South and 24kms from East to West. Ensuring that the fauna and flora of this vast area enjoy protection from the ever-increasing demand for certain species, mainly from eastern countries is an expensive and dangerous job.

It’s a job that demands high levels of training, dedication, equipping and commitment.

To this end, the reserve employs a force of highly trained men and women, who have passed a stringent selection process.

Each day, this force literally put their lives on the line by protecting and patrolling the reserve. Poachers are heavily armed with weapons and use them without any discretion. 

Dodging bullets, deterring poachers and avoiding black mambas: it’s all in a day’s work for these canines of the Timbavati Private Nature Reserve. 

Currently the Timbavati has five highly skilled & trained dogs; some are German Shepherds, and some Malinois, a Belgian breed. All the TPNR Canines are trained to track humans, and their responsibility is to help detect and track down rhino poachers who may enter the reserve. Each of the dogs has undertaken rigorous, sophisticated training lasting altogether one and a half years. Their handlers act in unison with their dogs as a team to take a stand against rhino poaching; They have trained extensively together to learn to search for suspects in open areas and in buildings, attack suspects on-leash at close quarters as well as tracking and apprehension of a suspect over long distances.  The most important training of all ensures that dog and handler can work as an effective team. Instilling a bond & creating that lifetime friendship and working relationship which is vitally important for their work and in the end, they become virtually inseparable." 

For More Info View The Timbavati Game Reserve Website page below.