South Africa · Gauteng
Cheetah conservation in South Africa.
Understand the project first. Choose how you want to experience it second.
The project
A working conservation operation.
Our cheetah conservation partner rescues cheetahs and other animals, rehabilitates the ones that can be rehabilitated, and prepares for release where the animal and the habitat make it right. Where release is wrong, the animal stays for life. It is a small operation, run by the people who own it.
Wide reserve landscape at golden hour
Game drive vehicle at dusk
The place
Gauteng. Dust, thorn and open sky.
[LOCATION DETAIL — distance from the nearest airport, the reserve’s size and setting to be confirmed.] What you will notice first is how quiet it is, and how close the animals are.
The conservation work
Rescue, rehabilitation, release.
Transport crate at the gate, first light
Rescue
Animals arrive from situations that were never going to work — unwanted, injured, or bred for something we do not support. The first job is a safe enclosure and a proper assessment.
Hands at work — feeding round through the fence line
Rehabilitation
Condition, behaviour, appetite, movement. Weeks of daily observation and feeding by the same small team, so change gets noticed early.
Wide reserve landscape at golden hour
Release
Pursued where the animal and the habitat make it right. It is the goal, not the guarantee, and the animal decides more of it than we do.
Lion resting in shade
Lifetime care
Where release would be wrong, the animal stays. Funded, fed and cared for, for life — never sold, never traded on.
Who you'll meet
A small operation — which is the whole point.
There is no visitor centre and no rota of strangers. The people who own the project are the people you work beside: Desmond and Elizke, with Zak and Annika on the animal team. You will know all four by the end of your first week.
The team on the ground, end of the afternoon round
[TEAM PHOTO TO SUPPLY]
Choose your experience
Two ways in. Same animals.
Hands in the daily work — feeding, cleaning, meat prep, enrichment.
Volunteering
Hands in the daily work — feeding, cleaning, meat prep, enrichment.
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Accommodation on the project
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Three meals a day
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Wifi and laundry
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Daily work with the animal team
Observation of procedures, health checks and monitoring alongside the team.
Veterinary internship
Observation of procedures, health checks and monitoring alongside the team.
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Observation of veterinary procedures
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Health checks and monitoring
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Accommodation and three meals a day
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[SCOPE OF PRACTICE]
Volunteering
Veterinary internship
Minimum stay
1 week
[DURATION]
Who it’s for
Ages 16–70, no experience needed
Pre-vet to qualified vets
Rate
From €800 per week
On enquiry
Included
Accommodation, three meals, wifi, laundry
Accommodation, three meals, wifi, laundry
Not included
Flights, transfers, insurance, visas
Flights, transfers, insurance, visas
Dates
Year round, on request
Agreed with the project
Bracketed rows are confirmed with the project before publication.
Ethics
Conservation without compromise.
Rescued cheetahs are never sold for profit.
Not to breeders, not to hunting operations, not to other collections.
Release happens where it is right for the animal.
Where habitat and behaviour allow it. Where they do not, the animal stays.
Some animals stay for life.
Lions and others arrive unreleasable — often from breeding or captive situations. The project is built to keep them, not to move them on.
You work to the animals' needs, not yours.
Cheetah walks and game drives happen when the day allows. Nothing is staged so a volunteer gets a photograph.