What are Educational Safaris? Educational Safaris are safaris usually taken by wildlife scholars, and they are designed to meet particular objectives for learning about the flora and fauna.
The tourists, learners, or researchers who go on these safaris usually engage in hands-on tours and activities and take on experimental projects to learn more about the different animals in the wild and their living environment.
These safaris will give their participants immersive experiences that allow them to connect with animals, nature, and the communities more intimately compared to ordinary safaris.
The educational safari guides are a bit more knowledgeable than the ordinary guides and are trained to give the learners in-depth information about the animals and nature they are touring for study purposes.
As part of their learning, the tourists or wildlife learners have the privilege of immersing themselves in interactive activities with the communities and locals, and they also spend as much time on safari activities like game drives, bird watching, hiking, etc., as they observe and learn.
Though purely educational, the beauty of educational safaris is that they also allow the wildlife lover to enjoy the wild, like they were on a leisure safari.
However, all persons taking on these educational safaris should know that the safaris integrate with several subjects and disciplines such as biology, ecology, geography, and cultural studies; meaning if you have no clue of these other disciplines, you may find a challenge enjoying the educational safari in itself. And on a more important note, you need all the other disciplines to decipher the hidden hints in the wild as you study the different animals.
Because you are deeply studying and engaging with the communities on the educational safaris, you will have a lot of interaction and involvement with the communities, which is very good for you to learn and appreciate the different cultures, traditions, and norms of the different communities.
Because of the length of time you spend on these educational safaris, you, as a participant you need to prioritize your safety in all situations, and the expert guides and staff are there to always ensure you have a secure, safe, and healthy environment for you to learn as you explore the wild.
Also,, as you have this safari you may need additional supplies for educational purposes; so talk through these things with your tour operator so that your experience on the safari is good and educational as needed.
The educational safaris will have assessments and evaluations, which is not the case for the recreational safaris. These assessments and evaluations help you as a participant to measure if you actually learnt or not, and for the tour operators, they use the time to see if they did the right job or not.
During these sessions, you can also give feedback to your tour operators and guides; plus ask questions about the areas that are not clear in any case.
You know how on a recreational safari, you come with cameras to capture moments; on educational safaris, you have to incorporate a number of technologies like trackers, mobile devices, recorders, cameras, GPS devices and others. Your tour operator and the wild life authorities will advise on what you need and what is acceptable.
The educational safaris are done all year round in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo. You can study primates, savannah animals, the flora, landscapes, communities, and a number of things in wild, depending on your interests and other factors.
