Tenikwa Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre

Donate and support wildlife in South Africa

Goal

To educate people on ethical treatment of wildlife, sustainable tourism and successfully release rehabilitated animals back into the wild.

Founder

Len & Mandy

Facts

Our story

Tenikwa grew from humble beginnings in 2002 when the owners started rehabilitating injured birds in a wooded shed behind their house. Today it is one of the largest active wildlife rehabilitation centres in the Western Cape, attending to a diverse variety of animals accepting both terrestrial and marine species.

Animals arrive at Tenikwa on an almost daily basis. Each case is individually assessed and a rehabilitation schedule is designed, a fitting enclosure prepared and eventual safe release plan is implemented to give each animal the best chance of survival.

What we do

We rehabilitate and release injured and abandoned wildlife from across the Garden Route, Both Marine and terrestrial animals. We have created a sustainable model to ensure that all the operations being conducted at Tenikwa are directed to achieving a positive outcome for the animals and people involved.

Achievments

We have released over 80 endangered African Penguins to date along with a multitude of other indigenous wildlife. We admit between 200 and 400 wild animals each year. We have treated birds, mammals, reptiles and everything in between.

On top of that we also offer wildlife tours to see the indigenous cats of South Africa and other local wildlife and change the minds and hearts of every visitor. Our tours are conservation based and focus on promoting ethical tourism and ethical treatment of animals.

Local change

Our staff are role-models in their community and take the message of conservation home to their families. Staff at Tenikwa are full-time employees, and Tenikwa contributes significantly to the employment of the local community sourcing its staff locally.

Wildlife conservation at Tenikwa serval cat in the grass

Wildlife conservation with life long support in the sanctuary

Tenikwa Elzette Lategan staff South Africa Kathrin David

General manager Elzette Lategan together with Kathrin David

Tenikwa visitor educational work lion exploitation

Every visitor learn about the animals and their problems

One of the resident lions at Tenikwa

The fair-trade tourism principles at Tenikwa

Tenikwa wildlife rehabilitation sanctuary sign entrance

Tenikwa Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre

Local employees get to life their love for wildlife at Tenikwa

Tenikwa cheetah rehabilitation South Africa

Cheetah in the Tenikwa sanctuary

Tenikwa white lion rehabilitation resident

One of the resident lions that get lifelong support at Tenikwa

Tenikwa wildlife rehabilitation sanctuary caracal

One of the caracal in the Tenikwa sanctuary

They also got birds at Tenikwa

The resident leopard at Tenikwa

Twin-bed room for volunteers

GIVE

Donate directly to Tenikwa Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre

Give

Money, we receive is used for

We take the donations to fund our rehabilitation work, feeding, medical bills, enclosure maintenance enclosure maintenance and arranging transport and so forth for releases.
Besides the wildlife education tours with our resident animals that receive lifelong care from us, we depend on regular donations from the public to maintain the appropriate level of care and quality of food that the animals deserve.

Our current project

We are in the process of trying to rescue a lion from Madagascar. He is being kept as a pet. He will stay with us for the rest of his natural life. The enclosure that we are building for him is not quite done yet. We would need about R50 000 to finish the enclosure and about R200 000 to care for him for the rest of his life.

Kathrin David Portrait Sonnenlicht Feld Köln

Who visited the project personally?

Kathrin visited Tenikwa August 2018. It was very difficult to find an ethical wildlife rehabilitation center in South Africa. Meeting and interviewing Elzette for her Podcast (see below), felt to her like she learned about a whole new world. Is it ok to breed with animals in captivity? (no!) Is it ok to touch animals? (no, never). Why is volunteering sometimes good and sometimes it doesn’t make sense. Tenikwa is a special place and it needs all the support, it can get.