"Say hello to Kitoko..." Top 5 Page for this destination Orana Wildlife Park Tip by TheWanderingCamel

... a very well travelled - and utterly beautiful - cheetah who lives at Orana Wldlife Park with others of her kind - Orana participates in a worldwide captve breeding programme for these criticaly endangered animals. Kitoko was hand-reared at South Africa's world-famous de Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust. She first travelled to Perth Zoo ( where I met and fell in love with her when I was working there as a volunteer guide). When her carefully planned first pregnancy failed ( the baby died soon after birth) it was decided that Kitoko probably was not good mother-material and she would not be used to breed again. Perth only has room for one female cheetah so a home was found for her at Orana. This is normal practice for endangered animal breeding programmes - the animals actually don't "belong" to a zoo, but to the relevant breeding programme which dictates the movement of animals to ensure sound breeding and as diverse a gene pool as possible.

So - if animals are your thing and you have no objection to zoos and wildlife parks (and they do do a wonderful job), when you're in Christchurch, take yourself out to Orana. As well as Kitoko and the other cheetah, you'll find rare Rothschild giraffe and African Hunting Dogs - probably the most endangered of all Africa's animals -(and there's another Perth connection with both these groups), white rhino and magnificent scimitar-horned oryx - both animals that have literally been brought back from the brink of extinction by captive breeding programmes - along with several other African species.
There are small groups of animals from Australia and South America, and lots of New Zealand birds and reptiles (New Zealand has no native mammals) including the elusive kiwi.

The park covers quite a big area but there is a hop on-hop off shuttle you can take to get yourself around. Guided walking tours are offered at 10.40 and 2.30. You'll find feeding and keeper talk times posted in the information centre.

Address: McLeans Island Road, Papanui
Directions: 25 mins by car from Christchurch, north of the airport
Open every day except Christmas Day 10-5, last entry 4.30
Return transport from the City Centre is offered by the Sunshine Shuttle.
Phone: 0-3-359 71 09
Website: http://www.oranawildlifepark.co.nz