Lying face down with his arms stretched across a sedated elephant, Prince Harry is pictured on a recent trip to Africa where he worked on frontline conservation projects.

The 31-year-old, who spent three months in the summer working as a wildlife conservation volunteer, released a selection of his own photographs and videos to highlight the threat to elephants and rhinos from poachers.

The pictures, from Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana and Namibia, were taken as he worked alongside rangers responding to poaching attacks.

The prince, fifth in line to the throne, has personally captioned each picture and shared them to coincide with his official visit on Wednesday to the South Africa wildlife college near Kruger national park.

Earlier on Wednesday in the park, he was shown the gruesome sight of a recently slaughtered female rhino and her calf. She was killed for her horn, which is said to be the most valuable animal commodity in the world by weight.

At one point, he gestured at the carcass and said: “This belongs to South Africa and it’s been stolen by other people. And the body’s left here, wasted. Just for ...” and his voice trailed away.

Prince Harry’s pictures and captions

I was working with Dr Mark Jago and Dr Pete Morkel in Namibia. Some countries are de-horning small populations of rhino to deter poachers from shooting them. It is a short-term solution and surely no substitute for professional and well-trained rangers protecting these highly sought-after animals. De-horning has to be done every two years for it to be effective and can only realistically be done with small populations in open bush. My initial task each time was to monitor the heart rate and oxygen levels and help stabilise them as quickly as possible. My responsibilities then grew to taking blood and tissue samples and the de-horning itself.

Learn more at www.savetherhino.org.

Many people will have heard of Hope, a young female black rhino that was brutally wounded by poachers. This was the second operation to try to save this animal’s life. Some poachers use a dart gun and tranquilize the animal so as not have to fire a shot that would be heard. They then hack their face off while the animal is paralysed. Local communities saw her stumbling through the bush and then alerted the authorities. Thanks to Dr William Fowlds and his team, Hope survived and is making a speedy recovery.

After a very long day in Kruger national park, with five rhinos sent to new homes and three elephants freed from their collars – like this sedated female – I decided to take a moment. I know how lucky I am to have these experiences, but hearing stories from people on the ground about how bad the situation really is upset and frustrated me. How can it be that 30,000 elephants were slaughtered last year alone? And for what? Their tusks? Seeing huge carcasses of rhinos and elephants scattered across Africa with their horns and tusks missing is a pointless waste of beauty.

This was the second time Zawadi, a female black rhino, met someone from my family. My brother William fed her three years ago in Kent just before she left under a translocation project to Tanzania where she now lives in a sanctuary. Thanks to the passion and stubbornness of Tony Fitzjohn OBE and his amazing rangers, she and many others are living it up in the bush and their numbers are growing. She goes nuts for carrots and I loved being able to send William this photo. Hats off to Tusk Trust.

These baby rhinos are at an orphanage because their mothers were killed by poachers. I can’t say where this is for obvious reasons. But I spent an afternoon with Petronel Nieuwoudt, who runs the orphanage. The youngest rhino was called Don. He was just two months old when he was found in Kruger national park. Petronel has students and volunteers from all over the world come to look after these orphans. They pay for this experience and that money is used for milk, food, fencing and rangers for security.