For some weekend fun, see our new video of lions and tigers at the ADIWS playing with their new footballs!

All animals are curious and enjoy new experiences and exploring their environment. Like us, exercising their intelligence and senses is important to their wellbeing. And the science now confirms what we all knew – non-human animals feel joy, pleasure, pain and fear much as we do. Knowing this, once we rescue our lions, tigers and other animals from circuses, we give them the largest possible natural habitats with space to run and lie in the sun (or soak in the pool if you are a tiger). But we are conscious that although the wildlife in their habitats is very entertaining, they still need new things to interest and engage them – this the reason we give them random objects like cardboard boxes with catnip/hay, pumpkins, melons and towers of hay bales to destroy. We are always looking for new toys to introduce. 

When we first take the animals from the circuses, we are limited by the space in our Temporary Rescue Units (TRUs), so we make tunnels out of cages, build temporary exercise areas, and we provide small footballs in our TRUs because we know they love to play chase, jump on them and squash them (of course, we remove them as soon as the ball is “dead” to avoid chewing).

At the Sanctuary, although they have the native wildlife for entertainment, we are always looking for something they can chase, pounce and kick about, and one of our supporters found a local supplier of large plastic balls.  So, we tried out some of the balls in a test run, to see which size was the best option for residents – you can see the results in the video!

The best option for our residents is the largest size balls, because they cannot pick them up to chew them. And to have enough balls for everyone, we need 37! Can you donate for a ball for one of our lions or tigers today?  

Each 400mm (under 16”) ball costs:              R1,050 / $75 / £55

Each 500mm (under 20”) ball costs:              R1,250 / $85 / £65 

Thank you for supporting the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary in providing the care and attention these animals deserve – a world away from their suffering in the circus.