OUR PROGRAMS
Mission
"Sustainably enhance native biodiversity and advance the culture of communities toward responsible environmental stewardship."
“We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein do we err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.” - Henry Beston
Objectives.
At Wild Serve, we run a range of inter-supportive programs designed to foster human-wildlife coexistence. We focus on proactive risk mitigation through education and ecosystem restoration, alongside direct intervention efforts like first aid and stabilisation for sick, injured, or orphaned wildlife affected by human activity.
OUR
PROGRAMMES.
Wildlife Emergency Response
Wildlife Conflict Mitigation
Habitat Protection
We operate on the frontline, within the critical timeframes when animals - and their public rescuers - need immediate attention. Wild Serve is the only Gauteng-based organisation that is intentionally and strategically located, fully equipped, and experienced to provide a province-wide response. We’ve gone to great lengths to secure central sites and establish an easily accessible call centre, ensuring we’re always within reach and able to react as quickly as possible. Our operating hours extend two hours earlier than any wildlife center opens to two hours after they close. This ensures people can access help before heading to work (or upon arrival), as well as in the evening when they return home and encounter a wildlife emergency.
With a deep understanding of our own species, the ecology of our province, and the natural and adapted behaviors of wildlife, we’ve been assessing and developing human-wildlife conflict solutions for over 15 years. You might not call Wild Serve first, but chances are that your call to us will be your last, as other organisations regularly refer calls to us. With expert knowledge of over 340 species and specialist expertise in nearly a dozen more, combined with extensive technical and industrial experience, we are the undisputed #1 referral for population-level projects in Gauteng.
Our activities focus on the preservation, restoration, and protection of both natural and artificial habitats in urban spaces. Every animal is a unique product of its responses to its environment - adapting not only through behavioural changes but even through physical transformations in reaction to external stimuli. All life does this, and must, for biodiversity to thrive everywhere. As we often say at Wild Serve: "Nature didn’t get the memo." When animals are reported as not belonging in certain areas, it’s a reminder that nature is perpetually purposeful, always finding a way to pour life into every corner of the planet. In Gauteng, we face a growing challenge beyond urban sprawl and creep: the outright and unabated destruction of greenbelts and ancient wildlife corridors, crucial for animals to safely and discreetly navigate our cities and towns. As part of our efforts, we run a project that fosters collaboration with local communities eager to protect their environment. While we have historically chaired “Friends of” groups, we’ve found our role is more effective as an interconnect between them. This position allows us to work more dynamically outside the constraints of formal committees while tending to the geographic islands that fall between these community groups — bridging gaps and creating continuity in urban conservation. See Corridors of Life Project
PROGRAM CHALLENGES.
Global
Commitment.
