Endangered Species Breeding Project
The Hoedspruit Research and Breeding Centre for Endangered Species is situated on 100 hectares of the Kapama Game Reserve, close to the airport at Hoedspruit. Guided tours are conducted hourly, starting with a video presentation in the auditorium. More than 80 cheetah can be seen, including tame individuals, cubs and the beautiful king cheetah. These cheetahs have recessive genetic modifications that result in them having stripes rather than spots.
The tour brings you in close contact with three of the Big Five as well as species such as the wild dog, serval, caracal, black-footed cat, aardwolf, ground hornbill, blue crane, African wild cat, and the endangered Sable antelope.
The resident Barbary lion, young rhinos and buffaloes can also be viewed.
Visitors are also able to witness feeding sessions of various rare African vultures as the birds swoop down into the Centre en route to a specially designed feeding platform known as a "vulture restaurant". These vultures are fed the remains of carcasses left over from the feeding of other animals at the Centre, thus ensuring that nature's food chain is maintained.
The Hoedspruit Cheetah Project can be visited from Monday to Saturday (08:00-16:00) as well as on Sundays and during school holidays.
Booking in advance is not required but recommended for groups numbering ten persons or more.
The duration of the tour is 90 minutes, ending at reception where guests can browse through the curio shop and visit the information centre. Two tours lasting three hours are conducted daily at 08:00 and 14:00.
The Centre can be contacted by telephone on +27 (0) 12 460-9997 or by email.
