10,000km from home, Rebecca and the meerkats find a safe space from the pandemic

At the start of 2020, Riverland-born zoology honours Rebecca Schober made a big decision — she was going to head to half a world away to study wild animals. 

She had just finished an honours degree in Tasmania following a Bachelor of Science and was looking for an adventure to further her career. 

“I saw this post on Facebook from a mutual friend that I had met in South Africa previously, advertising volunteer positions in South Africa,” she said.

“I thought, ‘Well I’m not doing anything so I’ll give it a go’.”

Not long after she landed more than 10,000km from her home town of Waikerie in South Australia, the world was plunged into the COVID-19 pandemic, but she was safe from it all on a remote property studying meerkats near the Botswana border. 

“I just scraped in and I was the last international volunteer for a few months,” Ms Schober said. 

“We were quite isolated on the reserve and there wasn’t much interaction with the outside world and I said I’d stay for 12 months — so I’ll stick it out and see how it goes.” 

Curious creatures provide distraction

While the pandemic raged on, Ms Schober worked and lived with a group of around 20 people on a reserve owned by Oxford University and the University of Zurich. 

She studied the behaviours of a local meerkat population, which involved early wake ups before dawn and long days in the desert sun. 

“We’d weigh them and follow them once they left the burrow for about three hours and record certain behaviours on our tablets.

“We’d set some alarms, see if there were any predators around and see how they interacted with other meerkat groups, so it was pretty full-on.

Meerkats are found in southern Africa, including South Africa, Botswana, Angola and Namibia, and are abundant in the areas they are found. 

They are unique for the way their social structures work, gathering in groups of two-to-25, with the dominant male and female breeding, while the other members look after the pups. 

“The group really works together even if they’re not quite related to raise the group,” Ms Schober said. 

“Sometimes they do come into contact with other groups and they’re quite territorial, so they’ll try to fight other meerkats to try to expand their little area.”

An eye on the future 

Now back in the Riverland, Ms Schober is busy planning what the rest of her career will look like after a whirlwind year. 

“I want to get into ecology work, that’s where I’m heading, working with animals,” she said. 

“Definitely all the skills I have learned are very transferable to our landscape and our animals.”