Hangklip-Kleinmond Business Directory

Hangklip-Kleinmond Directory | 2026 30 and damp rot covered the grubby walls and lack of plumbing and electricity made the first half of 2023 incredibly challenging. To our great relief, help came in the form of community spirit. Neighbors, friends, community leaders and long-term locals from the Biosphere villages and beyond, turned up in droves and provided us with the essentials tools and labor we needed to renovate and improve the growing facility. A large donation from an anonymous Bettys Bay resident got us off the starting block and the center became a reality. OUR FIRST PATIENTS: In November that year, just a few weeks before the Kogelberg Biosphere Wildlife Rescue and Training Centre officially opened its doors to the public, two very young orphaned Blue Crane chicks were brought to our facility needing urgent care. The siblings, orange headed and covered in fluffy down feathers, had already collapsed from exhaustion and cold when they were dropped off late in the afternoon by rangers from CapeNature. The Blue Crane, or Stanley Crane ( Anthropoides paradisea) is the National Bird of South Africa and their numbers in the wild are rapidly declining, placing them on the “Venerable Species” list. These two tiny chicks were quickly given essential fluids and provided with warmth and overnight care. By the next day their appetites had returned, and while the smaller one remained a lot frailer, both made a wonderful recovery. During this entire process, the chicks were never spoken to or exposed to the sound of human voices. Ethical wildlife rehabilitation protocols include strategies to prevent habituation and imprinting, ensuring that chicks are raised wild and that with time, they develop a healthy fear of humans.