Animal Encounters

IMPORTANT NOTICE (17 July 2025):

Dear Friends of Cango Wildlife Ranch,

A few of our big cats are feeling a little under the weather, and in the best interest of their health and wellbeing, we have decided to temporarily halt tours to the Cheetahland section of our facility and pause all Ambassador Animal Encounters. This proactive decision allows our team to monitor them more closely without the distraction of tours, providing a more calm and peaceful environment that prioritizes their recovery. As their well-being remains our top priority, we are unable to confirm the duration of this process — it will be entirely guided by their progress, but we will share an update by Monday, 21 July.

Tours of our ‘Valley of Ancients’ will continue to run throughout the day, and the Snake Park, Bird Aviary, Restaurant, and KidZone will remain open as usual.

As a gesture of goodwill during this period, we will be offering a reduced entrance rate of R150 per adult (14 and older) and R50 per child (ages 5 to 13), until full operations resume.

We understand that this may cause inconvenience and potentially disappointment, but we deeply appreciate your understanding and continued support as we care for our animal family.

Warm regards,

Cango Wildlife Ranch Team

What sets Cango Wildlife Ranch apart, is that we take our animal care and visitor safety standards to an international level. We accomplish this by ensuring we uphold our internationally recognised accreditation by the Pan-African Association of Zoos & Aquaria (PAAZA). This specific accreditation has only been awarded to a handful of facilities in the whole of Africa, it is extremely prestigious and difficult to achieve and is reviewed every 5 years.


Our Natural Encounter programs, along with our new Experience Department, offers visitors both young and old the chance to interact with a few of our ambassadors species:

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

In our Encounters Program you can;

  • Befriend a snake, (5+ years with a guardian)
  • Meet a cheetah, (14+ years must exceed 1.5m / 5ft)
  • Be enchanted by our cheetah cubs *subject to availability, 
  • Feed an African Leopard, African Lion or Bengal Tiger, (14+ years must exceed 1.5m / 5ft)
  • Hang out with our Ring-Tailed Lemurs, (5+ years with a guardian) 
  • Croc-Cage Dive with our prehistoric Nile crocodiles, (5+ years with a guardian / 14+ years without) - Closed for winter season
  • Feed a crocodile, (10+ years must exceed 1.5m / 5ft) Closed for winter season

*All encounters are subject to animal behaviour, weather and therefore subject to change.

At Cango Wildlife Ranch, the well-being and welfare of all our animals are 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 hope that encounters with these magnificent creatures will encourage compassion and support in the plight that these species face on our fragile planet. All contributions from Natural Encounters go towards the vital funding of our conservation and captive breeding programs. If you would like to become more involved in helping us to help them, we invite you to join our Cheetah Preservation Foundation (CPF) – which channels all contributions to the conservation and breeding programs both in the wild and here at the Cango Wildlife Ranch. 

It is important to note that we take our cue from our animals. Should for any reason, they not react voluntarily we will not force them to participate in an encounter. Their health and well being is our first priority. Encounters, therefore, are subject to change without prior notice.

ENCOUNTER EXTRA'S

  • 16GB USB with photo's taken by our photographer of your unforgettable encounter experience!
  • Photo folder with a beautiful photo memory of your experience

PLEASE NOTE:

For the protection of our animals and yourself people with any respiratory illness, Pregnancies, Colds, Influenza, Tuberculosis, Mumps, Measles, German Measles, Chickenpox, Cold sores, Eye infections, Ear Infections, or if you feel unwell in any way, may be limited to do only certain encounters.

Adults who need to accompany, or prefers to accompany a child on an encounter, will be requested to purchase their own encounter ticket.

Children 5 - 13 years old must be accompanied by an adult for their encounters.

 

 

Rates

Natural Encounters is an optional extra and NOT included in the entrance fee. 

Children younger than 14 participating in the applicable Encounters must be accompanied by an adult.

To ensure you are able to participate in any one of the above-mentioned encounters, please contact us prior to your visit to enquire the availability of the encounters you may be interested in, and the dates of your visit.