Volunteering at Cikananga Wildlife Center
Do you want to work with wildlife in one of the most extensive Cikananga Wildlife Center of its kind? The Cikananga Wildlife Center volunteer and internship program is open for everyone: Local and international students and other individuals interested to experience and study Indonesian wildlife. The programs bring valuable support to the Center and provide the participants with an opportunity to experience the rescue and conservation of Indonesian wildlife
Volunteer helping our staff feeding our cassowarries
The Work
Together with our Indonesian staff, you will work in Cikananga for six days a week from 7 AM to 4 PM, inclusive of a lunch break (11.30-13.00 PM). Main tasks you undertake are :
- Daily care of the animals (feeding preparation, cleaning the enclosures)
- Preparing enrichment
- Animal behaviour observation
- Teamwork, where all the staff and participants of the program will work on building projects in the park
It is also possible to help with education activities as local schools visit us from time to time, observe veterinary procedures, and if the opportunity presents itself you can help with confiscation or release of the wildlife
Volunteer providing food enrichment for our animals
Affordable Price and Benefits
We try to keep pricing affordable: We firmly believe that an experience with wildlife should be in 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 corner for every volunteer or intern, and a large cantina with a spectacular view over the rice fields.
One of the Dormitory
Activities Around Cikananga
Next to the daily work in the park, we can organize activities around Cikananga like a visit and swim in the large natural Bibiljan waterfalls and spot wildlife in the meantime or it’s possible to go caving with professional guides in the 1500 meter long cave and vertical caving, or a guided walk in the amazing tea-field that are so typical for West-Java.
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