Caroline Rees

I've always been captivated by animals but never thought I would get the opportunity to follow my childhood dreams of working in conservation. Sitting in the office one day I decided that I needed to live life and not just exist in it. I quit my job as an IT/telecoms engineer and went back to University to start the journey towards living my dream. Some people at the office thought I was crazy to give up my financial stability and start over but for me it was an easy decision. One of my motto’s is ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’.. so that’s exactly what I did. After getting my Zoology degree under my belt I volunteered as researcher in the Virunga Mountains (Uganda) collecting field data on the endangered Golden Monkey. Living in a mud hut with no electricity and no running water needed some adjustment, but trekking in the depths of the rainforest so close to the Congo border provided a unique set of challenges. Needless to say I didn’t tell my mother of the potential dangers until after I had returned home! After completion of the Uganda project my immediate instinct was that I needed to be based in Africa. I wanted to be involved with a project where again I could contribute to the preservation of endangered species, but things didn’t go so smoothly after I got home. To make money I ended up working night shifts stacking shelves for the world’s largest online retailer. It was a definite low point but motivated me to spend any free time I had looking for new opportunities. I applied for a PhD studying 'large herbivores'. I was interviewed and was offered the position. Little did I know that I would be working with rhino! A wise person once said to me ‘if you want to make God laugh.. tell him your plans’. Who would have thought within 6 years I would have gone from sitting in an office thinking about my dreams to living them. My ultimate goal was to make a difference so I hope that’s what I am able to do for Africa’s rhinos.

November 2013