World of Birds Wildlife Sanctuary & Monkey Park

This guide to World of Birds Wildlife Sanctuary in Hout Bay opens in 1971 with Walter Mangold, a German immigrant clearing four hectares of scrub by hand with no funding, driven by a conviction that people needed to stand close to birds rather than glimpse them through glass. It follows how that conviction grew into walk-through aviaries and a dim owl sanctuary, and turns to a darker thread: the Zulu and Xhosa beliefs that tie an owl's call to sorcery and death, and the fear that has made barn owls and wood owls a target. You'll hear how many of the park's owls ended up here because of that fear rather than in spite of it. Listen closely near the owl enclosure for the sound the guide keeps circling back to.