Student Profile : Stanley Hitchcock

I’m Stan, from Northampton in England. I’ve been at AWCRC for nearly 5 months now, and it is an amazing experience allowing me to grow and develop as a person in such a unique environment. I am the student leader of the predator tracks project. If you are interested in predators, there are so many cool tracks to see here, including lots of hyena, civets, caracals, and even sometimes leopards. If you like a morning walk, this could be the project for you.

Photography is another interest of mine, and there are endless opportunities on the farm to take photos of different animals. I have been fortunate to get epic photos of eagles above me, a lizard eating a gecko, and even a dassie mid-air jumping from rock to rock.

Camp life is very varied, which is one of the best parts, with lots of people preferring different projects. Some people going to the dump to observe human-baboon interactions, others watching dassies on the kopjes, and people like me heading out at sunrise to see what the predators have been up to the previous night.

Outside of the projects life is just as memorable. I’ve done so many cool things around Limpopo with people from camp. Twice I’ve been hiking with wild rhino, visited the national park Mapungubwe, an antipoaching tactical experience, trips to Polokwane and Makoppas, our favourite bar to go to on the weekend. Coming here I have made friends from all over the world and also met lots of French people.

One of my favourite short projects is camera traps, which involves a weekly lap around the farm, to service our camera traps, see what cool visitors they have had over the last week, whilst getting a fun little game drive, seeing if I can spot the zebra, kudu, buffalo or any of the other cool animals you are likely to encounter here.

If you’re considering coming to AWCRC or are re-reading the website after confirming your place here, you have so much to look forward to. My advice would be to go for it. Time feels like it goes so fast here, you always have something fun to do (or data entry), and something to look forward to all the time. You will meet the biggest range of characters, experience a new culture and lifestyle, so it’s important that whilst you are here you make the most of all the amazing opportunities our excellent supervisors organise for us. The experience is what you make of it, with the right mindset you can further your academic skills whilst simultaneously growing as a person and experiencing all the amazing things that make South Africa so unique.