Western Cape Big Cat Sanctuary

The Project

The sanctuary provides a compassionate and enriching environment for exploited big cats to live out their lives in comfort and safety. It also provides a range of specialist services such as trapped animal relocations, animal communication workshops and big cat facility advice and assistance.

With a strong focus on raising awareness of the plight of big cats in Africa, the sanctuary delivers on-site educational programs to sanctuary visitors and provides the opportunity for visitors and volunteers to be involved in creating enrichment toys and activities for the cats.

The Location

The sanctuary is located on 40 hectares of private land in Stanford, in the Western Cape province in South Africa.

Situated in the Overberg region known for its grain and fruit production, Stanford is a small historic village built on the Klein River. Considered one of South Africa’s best preserved villages, Stanford is known for its beauty and charm.

South Africa is a country on the southernmost tip of the African continent. It is made up a variety of ecosystems. The inland safari destination of Kruger National Park covers vast shrublands populated by big game, the Western Cape encompasses lush winelands around Stellenbosch and Paarl, wild beaches, the rocky cliffs at the Cape of Good Hope, the forest and lagoons along the Garden Route, and the city of Cape Town which sits beneath flat-topped Table Mountain.

Our Volunteers

Volunteers assist in many different areas of the sanctuary such as

• cleaning enclosures and water bowls
  
• helping to prepare the food for the big cats
  
• helping build enclosures
  
• clearing alien plants creating important enrichment toys for the animals to play with
  
• checking electric fencing around the enclosures and property
  

On arrival at the project, you will receive an orientation from a staff member. Your orientation will cover an introduction to the project, rules and regulations, a house induction, animal introduction and a rundown of your tasks while at the project.

Contact with the animals

The caracals at the sanctuary were raised with humans and require ongoing interactions with humans for their emotional wellbeing. Volunteers will have the opportunity to engage in ‘play time’ with the caracals.

Physical contact with the other big cats is strictly prohibited! This includes the lion cubs.

Most operations involved in the hand-rearing of lion cubs do not have the lions’ best interests at heart. Many of these cubs end up providing sport for hunters. Potential volunteers are encouraged to do their own research on the Canned Hunting industry before embarking upon a lion volunteering project in South Africa to ensure that they aren’t supporting an unethical and cruel practice.

Conditions Onsite

Some sanctuary maintenance tasks can be physically demanding working in the heat of summer. Some volunteers may also feel a bit squeamish about the large portions of meat that are fed to the lions.

There is no maximum age, however, you will need to be able to stand for long periods of time, work in humidity or the heat and perform manual labour tasks. 

Please Note

The second instalment of your project fees is due within 1 week after you paid the deposit on Volunteer World. This is a total of $495 AUD and comes off your balance. The balance is due 90 days prior to travel. For all further information about the fees, please scroll down to the section "Program Fees“.