Situated just 3km outside of the picturesque Karoo town of Oudtshoorn, the Cango Wildlife Ranch offers sanctuary to some of the world’s most endangered species and a haven to visitors. Welcome to the Cango Wildlife Ranch, the oldest and largest cheetah contact centre worldwide where you can see and feel a huge variety of animals including Africa’s spotted king, the cheetah. From the slithering snake to the majestic lion, you will find all you want here.

Since its inception in 1977 the ranch has become one of the largest tourist attractions in the region. Cheetahland was developed in 1988 and became the home of a variety of cats such as lion and jaguar, helping us with our goal to promote public awareness of endangered species.

The thrill of Valley of Ancients and Natural Encounters were completed in 2005 adding a thrill element to learning about crocodiles and making the Cango Wildlife Ranch one of the most interactive, exciting tourist attractions worldwide. New species of animals such as Madagascar Lemur, Spotted-necked otter and Marabou stork were brought in to awe visitors. The Natural Encounter program offers visitors young and old the once in a lifetime opportunity of interacting with some of our animals.

Let the young ones wander around our Kiddies farm yard where they can connect with nature by feeding and cuddling our hand reared rabbits, guinea pigs and goats.

If you are looking for a zoo, you will be sorely disappointed. The Cango Wildlife Ranch is uniquely designed to comfortably host more than 40 species of animals, giving visitors the opportunity to view and, in some cases, even interact with a variety of endangered animals.

Open the door to your heart and we will open the windows to your soul…

At the Cango Wildlife Ranch the well-being and welfare of all our animals is paramount in the promotion of our conservation ethic to you, our valued guest.

To achieve these aims we promote the concept of Natural Encounters between you and a number of select ambassador species.

We trust that any Natural Encounter will offer you a once-in-a-lifetime sheer thrill. The trus and playfulness of our rare white tigers; the contented purr and amber stare of our cheetah or the heart-stopping stuff that is your cage-dive with a mighty 4 metre Nile crocodile.

We hope that your encounters with these magnificent creatures will encourage you to care more for thei survival on our fragile planet.

All contributions from Natural Encounters go towards the vital funding of our conservation and captive breeding programmes. If you would like to become more involved in helping us to help them, we invite you to join our Cheetah Conservation Foundation (CCF) – a non-profit organisation which channels all contributions to the conservation and breeding programmes both in the wild as well as here at the Cango Wildlife Ranch.

For more information on CCF, please visit our CCF page.

To ensure your special moment is never lost, our Experience Department will capture this moment on camera and present you with a beautiful photo folder afterwards (photo folder included in the price.)

Please note: Natural Encounters is an optional extra and not included in the Entrance fee.

To ensure you are able to participate in any one of the Encounters, please contact as prior to your visit to enquire if the Encounters you might be interested in are available on the date of your visit.