On her first day as an intern at the Conservators’ Center, it took just seconds for Chelsea Tabor to learn an everlasting truth about working with wildlife.

“I thought they were so cute until they opened their mouths, ” said Tabor, who lives in Chapel Hill. “When the lions roared it shook the ground. The animals let you know every day they are wild.”

The nonprofit center, sited on 45 acres near Mebane, was founded by Douglas Evans and Mindy Stinner in 1999 and is home to 97 animals, including lions, tigers, servals and bobcats. It began giving tours to the public in 2007. Its mission is to provide conservation and education, and offer sanctuary to wildlife that have nowhere else to go. “We consider ourselves the home of last resort,” said Stinner.

This three-part mission was one reason that Frank and Kim Pyne began volunteering at the center several years ago.

“What really won us over was how happy the animals were, how much the people working there loved them and how hard they worked to provide the best life for the animals they could,” Frank said.

The Pynes assist with construction projects, off-site outreach programs, tours, volunteer coordination, educational programs, food preparation and cage cleaning.

They are sponsors to two male lions, Mufasa and Arthur. “The center is very involved with local, national, and international communities and associations which help guide policies and work on legislation pertaining to animal welfare and conservation efforts,” Pyne said.

Binturongs, which Pyne said smell like Doritos, are one of the few small species that the center breeds. The hope is that they will eventually be able to be re-integrated into their native Southeast Asia rainforests. Their existence there is now greatly compromised.

“They are a keystone species and absolutely critical to the survival of their ecosystem,” said Julia Matson, director of fundraising and outreach. To work with wild animals, one must get to know all things about them. Success is in the details.

“You have to learn how to bribe animals, and binturongs will do anything for a banana,” Maston said.

Matson volunteered at the center before she went to New York to get degrees in criminal justice. She missed the calls of the wild, and returned as a staff member in 2007.

“I fell in love all over again,” Matson said. She can relate the biographies of all 97 center residents. Asked to pick out her favorites, she settled on Buffy, a playful tiger that was rescued from an Ohio breeding facility in 2004.

“For her to be so playful and sweet is a testament to the resilience these guys have,” Matson said. Her other choice was Amadeus, an Alaskan gray wolf.

“People find Amadeus endlessly charming,” Matson said.

Taking care of the physical, mental, and social needs of all these animals is a gargantuan task.

“It is the type of environment and type of job where you are going to bleed, sweat and cry,” Matson said. “But as much as you put into it, you get 10 times back.” Janine Takarczyk is the director of animal care.

“We feed around 500 pounds of meat a day, 99 percent of which is donated by local farms and hunters,” Takarczyk said.

Like most of the center’s large cats, Buffy gets about 15 pounds of meat every day. Takarczyk gives educational programs off-site sharing rescue stories and the center’s mission. The real message bearers of her presentations, though, are Kodi and Samara, New Guinea Singing Dogs that often accompany her.

The center is working to raise $60,000 for a special project. Governors Club in Chapel Hill is donating its former administrative offices, a 3,000 square foot modular building, to the center. The funds will pay to move the house, prepare the septic field and get the building useable. Currently the center operates out of a mobile home.

“When we found out about the donation it was all we could do not t o dance around,” Matson said. “It will greatly facilitate people coming on site, and it is so positive to expose people to the center.”

Tours, which are 90 minutes long, cost $10 for adults and $7 forchildren. Details are at www.conservatorscenter.org.