Agriculture and Nature Conservation › Nature Conservation
This course equips learners with the knowledge and skills to develop and implement a humane, sustainable strategy for managing feral cat colonies. It covers ethical considerations, colony assessment, trap-neuter-return (TNR) protocols, and ongoing monitoring to ensure animal welfare and community acceptance.
Animal welfare workers, municipal environmental health officers, community volunteers, and property managers responsible for managing feral cat populations in urban or rural settings.
None — open enrollment.
Objectives:
• Understand the ethical and legal framework for managing feral cat colonies in South Africa.
• Identify key components of a humane colony management strategy, including Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR).
• Develop a colony assessment and monitoring plan.
• Apply best practices for feeding, shelter, and health monitoring.
• Plan for colony stabilization and long-term population reduction.
Topics:
• Introduction to feral cat biology and behaviour
• Ethical considerations and animal welfare principles
• Legal framework: Animal Protection Act, municipal by-laws, and SAQA context
• Overview of Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) as the gold standard
• Colony assessment: mapping, counting, and health evaluation
• Feeding protocols and shelter design
• Record-keeping and colony monitoring
• Community engagement and conflict resolution
Hands-on practical sessions reinforce TNR procedures, humane trapping techniques, and colony assessment skills. Learners practice setting traps, conducting health checks, and completing colony records under supervision.
Each delegate is assessed continuously throughout the course via daily exercises, scored practical assignments, and a final summative test at the end.
Practical assignments are observed and scored against a rubric during the practical sessions. Each delegate's practical mark is averaged into a single 100% score and contributes 30% to the final total.
Every training day ends with a multiple-choice exercise scored out of 100%. The scores from each daily exercise are averaged across the duration of the course to produce a Daily Average mark, which contributes 20% to the final total.
On the last day a final summative test is written. It is a multiple-choice paper with multiple-answer questions: each question may have more than one correct option, and a single wrong selection on a question marks the entire question wrong — no partial credit. The final test is scored out of 100% and contributes 50% to the overall mark.
| Component | Out of | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Practical Assignments (rubric-scored) | 100% | 30% |
| Daily Average (multiple choice) | 100% | 20% |
| Final Test (multi-answer multiple choice) | 100% | 50% |
| Final Total | — | 100% |
All marks are recorded on the AATICD LMS and visible to each learner under their account.
Sign in to the LMS, open your dashboard, and your certificates appear under My Certificates. Each entry has a View / Download button and a print option.
Group discounts apply automatically — the more delegates you enrol, the greater the saving. Discounts are calculated at 3% per 5 delegates, scaling up to 40% off for 100+ delegates.
| Delegates | Discount |
|---|---|
| 5 | 3% off |
| 10 | 6% off |
| 15 | 9% off |
| 20 | 12% off |
| 25 | 15% off |
| 30 | 18% off |
| 50 | 30% off |
| 75 | 35% off |
| 100 | 40% off |
3% discount per 5 delegates, up to 40% off for 100+ delegates. Contact us for a custom group quote.
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