A Benefit With Bite

In Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” Tippi Hedren’s character takes quite a pecking.

But the actress’ relationship with the animal kingdom has always been a harmonious and loving one. In 1983, she established the Shambala Preserve, a 60-acre habitat in Acton, Calif., for more than 60 big cats, from African lions and Bengal tigers to cheetahs and Asian leopards.

Keeping them fed requires continual fund-raising, which brings Hedren to the Irvine Improv on Sunday night. She will serve as mistress of ceremonies for comedian Tom McTigue’s sold-out performance benefiting the Roar Foundation, the fund-raising arm of the Shambala Preserve.

“We do a lot of benefits,” Hedren said by phone from Chicago, where she was working on the CBS series “Chicago Hope.” “We have to raise $600,000 every year to keep it going. That’s a tremendous amount. It’s always very difficult, and we always need money.”

Hedren’s concern for the welfare of wild animals grew out of her experiences acting in two films in Africa in the early ‘70s. She then spent about 10 years developing a comedy-adventure film called “Roar.” The 1981 pro-wildlife movie centered on a woman who goes to the jungle with her children to visit her eccentric scientist husband.

Best known for her roles in “The Birds” and Hitchcock’s 1964 film, “Marnie,” Hedren remains active as an actress. She plays a “crazy woman” in the upcoming episode of “Chicago Hope,” which she says will be a “homage to Hitchcock.” The 66-year-old also just finished roles in three feature films, including “Breakup” with Bridget Fonda and a pilot for an HBO comedy series called “Love and Madness.”

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But Hedren’s thoughts never stray far from her feline friends, partly because she lives on the Shambala Preserve, about 40 miles north of Los Angeles.

“I have a wonderful house there,” she said. “It’s small, but it’s very animal-oriented. I’m surrounded by them. . . . [The animals] are in big compounds. The ones who like us are with us and the ones who don’t, we just worship them from afar.”

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All of the big cats at the nonprofit Shambala Preserve were born in captivity and are unable to live in the wild. A lion and lioness that had been abandoned by a circus in Mexico will soon arrive at the compound, where two African elephants also roam.

“These are animals who were either abused or abandoned or have been bred illegally or sold irresponsibly and consequently need a home,” Hedren said.

For more information about the Roar Foundation and Shambala Preserve, call (805) 268-0380.

* Tom McTigue, Kivi Rogers and J.B. Cook perform Sunday night at 8 at the Irvine Improv, 4255 Campus Drive, Suite 138. The show is sold out. (714) 854-5459.