On the same road as the Cango Caves, three kilometres north of Oudtshoorn, Cango Wildlife Ranch is a serious conservation facility as much as a tourist attraction. It houses cheetahs, white lions, meerkats, African penguins, and various reptiles, with a focus on breeding programmes for endangered species.
The cheetah encounter is the main draw — visitors can enter enclosures and interact with habituated cheetahs under supervision. This is one of the few places in the world where you can do this responsibly, with a facility that channels revenue into breeding programmes rather than pure entertainment. The penguin pool and meerkats are reliable crowd-pleasers, and the reptile section is unexpectedly fascinating for those willing to look at snakes.