Volunteering at Cikananga Wildlife Center
Do you want to make a difference for wildlife in one of the most extensive rescue centers of its kind? Join a volunteer program at Cikananga Wildlife Center.
The volunteer program is open for everyone: we welcome local and international volunteers, who are interested in helping Indonesian wildlife. The volunteer program brings valuable support to the center, and participants have the opportunity to experience the rescue and conservation of a variety of species.
Volunteer helping our staff feeding our cassowarries
The Work
Together with our Indonesian staff, you will work in the center for six days a week. Work hours are from 7 am to 4 pm, inclusive of a lunch break from 11.30 am to 13.00 pm. The volunteering program tasks at the center include:
- Food preparation and feeding
- Cage cleaning and maintenance
- Creating enrichment
- Behaviour observations
- Teamwork with keepers and other volunteers
It is also possible to help with education during school visits, observe veterinary procedures, and if the opportunity presents itself, you may be able to help with the confiscation or release of wildlife.
Note: You are not allowed to handle or touch any of the animals or to enter any of the facilities without the supervision of our staff, as you see in the photos. For the welfare of the animals, we apply a strict no-physical-contact policy where occasional handling is only permitted when supervised by our staff.
Volunteer providing food enrichment for our animals
Affordable Price and Benefits of Volunteer Program
We try to keep pricing affordable: We firmly believe that an experience with wildlife should be within reach of everyone who wants to learn about wildlife, international and local. Please find the current pricing in the PDF volunteer guide below. The small profit we make from the program enables us to pay the keepers, maintain the facilities and provide medical care for the wildlife animals.
The accommodation is two wooden dormitories with a private area for every volunteer and intern, toilet and washing facilities, and a large canteen with a spectacular view over the rice fields.
The volunteer guide
In this guide, we give you some background on Cikananga and the program for volunteers and interns from all over the world. There is information about daily practicalities, facilities, pricing, preparation, your arrival, and contact information.
If you like to apply for the volunteer program please download the Volunteer Application Form Cikananga and e-mail it to wanicare.volunteering@gmail.com
One of the Dormitory
Activities Around Cikananga
As well as fulfilling your duties within the center, there are also opportunities to explore the local area. We can organize activities around Cikananga, for example, a visit and swim at Bibiljan waterfalls, where it is also possible to spot wildlife. It is possible to go caving with professional guides in the 1500-meter-long cave and vertical caving or have a guided walk in the amazing tea fields that are so typical for West Java. It may also be possible to visit Gunung Gede, Pangrango, or Halimun Salak, where gibbons, leopards and many other wild animals still live.
Caving activity of group volunteers and interns
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After a month I can say that it was a very meaningful experience for me. Without any experience I started in Cikananga, but by all the enthousiasm of the staff and the other volunteers helped me succeed to master the ins and outs of being a wildlife volunteer. Of course you can’t change the world by one month of volunteering, but it taught me an important lesson about how I perceive nature and it has made me aware that animal abuse is much more common than ever before had dared to imagine. I’m glad I started this my trip through South East Asia in Cikananga and I would highly recommend to enroll in the volunteering program and accept this challenge, it’s a great experience!
Stefan Timmerman, Dutch Volunteer, 2016.
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In 2018 I spent about 2,5 months in Cikananga as an intern. I mainly focused on education & communication (crowdfunding). The internship was a very meaningful experience to me! I learned a ton about conservation, the different animal species & their needs and cultural differences between countries. The staff at Cikananga was always positive and very open and interested to hear about my plans and progress. They put in the effort to make time to discuss my reports and always provided ample feedback. In the last week we (me and my internship-buddy) organized a presentation to show our end results. The staff made sure all of the people who were involved got to join. As an intern this makes you feel like your work is truly valued.
Lisa de Brouwer, 2018