When we walked with lions

Written by Brendah Nyakudya
Monday, 19 December 2011 11:27

“Lions are not animals alone; they are symbols and totems and legend; they have impressed themselves so deeply on the human mind if not in its blood; it is as though the psyche were emblazoned with their crest. When you look into the eyes of a lion and watch the grace of his long stride – all that unused energy flowing under the skin, when you see the noble looking calm of the mouth and nose, the proud authority of the bearded chin – the mysterious reminder of the faces of classic and mythological heroes – you recognize to your marrow that you were born with that image already in you.” Evelyn Ames in A Garden of Eden

In August this year – courtesy of 1Time Airlines, Safari Par Excellence and Three Cities Group – we were part of an amazing experience in Livingstone, Zambia. We walked with lion.

This surreal occurrence was part of an initiative set up by Lion Encounter, an active conservation programme organised by passionate people wanting to secure the future of the African lion.

In centuries past, lion were the most widespread animals on land after human beings. In 1976 more than 200 000 of these magnificent creatures roamed the plains of the African continent. Sadly today paints a drastically different picture. The latest estimates show a frighteningly alarming 80 to 90 percent population decline over the last 30 years, leaving fewer than 23 000 lion in existence. This has led to governments placing this creature on the list of vulnerable species, but the rapid rate of decline has conservationists requesting that the lion be on the list of endangered species.

Targeted lion conservation

Reasons for the decline have been attributed to various factors, including habitat loss due to the increase in human population, poaching and snaring. Alarmed by this scenario, British travel-agent-turned-conservationist David Youldon set up Lion Encounter, which operates African Lion and Environmental Research Trust (ALERT), a non-profit organisation dedicated to the facilitation and promotion of sound conservation and management plans for the African lion. It was founded in 2005 to support the work of the four-stage rehabilitation and release into the wild programme initiated at Antelope Park in Gweru, Zimbabwe.

This breeding and rehabilitation project is a world first and is supported by leading ecologists in the field. It is one of the first programmes in Africa that ethically seeks to provide solutions to the problem of rapidly decreasing lion populations. These solutions involve releasing wild-born offspring of rehabilitated captive-bred lion into appropriate national parks and reserves. The organisation buys lion and raises them at special resorts. These lion are then allowed to breed, and their cubs become part of the African lion rehabilitation and release programme.

In the first stage of the four-stage programme the lion born at the breeding centres are removed from their mothers at three weeks. This age allows the trainers to prepare them so that they can embark on walks in the African bush. When they’re six weeks old, experienced handlers take the cubs into their natural environment on walks. These handlers take on the role of dominant members of the pride and help the lion gain more experience in the bush. The lion are then introduced to the smaller game in the park. At 18 months they are quite capable of taking down the game, and by the age of two they are seasoned hunters.

In the second stage the lion are given the opportunity to develop a natural social system in a closely monitored 2 square kilometre enclosure, which has game available for them to hunt. At this stage there is no human contact.

Once the handlers are satisfied that the lion can fully sustain themselves and have a socially stable pride, they are radio collared and trans-located as a pride into a managed eco-system that is approximately 40 square kilometres with game to hunt. In this stage, which is the programme’s third, there are no other lion or humans, but there will be other competitive species such as hyena to teach them survival skills. Here these lion will give birth to cubs that will be raised by the pride in the managed eco-system. These cubs will gain necessary skills that will enable their re-introduction into national parks across Africa.

In stage four, the lion are released into the wild, having gained the necessary skills to survive.

In addition, ALERT facilitates the integration of female-only prides with other wild prides. It also assists with the re-population of the African lion. In August this year, for instance, six female members of a pride in Zambia were released into the wild, at a site just north of Livingstone. This was the second release under the African lion rehabilitation and release into the wild programme in a year.

Getting up close to the king of the animals

Lion Encounter offers a unique opportunity to the people of Africa and those visiting our continent to come into very close contact with lion. Visitors are taken on so-called “lion walks” when the cubs are in the first stage of the programme, at the age of six weeks. Tourists and visitors are brought to the lion and, in the company of the handlers, go for a walk with the mammals in the bush.

These walks have been earmarked as a fundraising tool for community projects that are also run by Lion Encounter volunteers, who have shown heart not only for the wild but also for people living in the communities surrounding the lion projects.
 
One of the community projects targeted by Lion Encounter volunteers has been that of Muuke Pre-school, located not far from the programme’s base in the Zambian Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park. The school, which is currently hosted in a church building, lies bare. There are no chairs, no tables, posters or food – only 70 children desperate for an education. When the volunteers at Lion Encounter heard of Muuke Pre-school, they found out it only has two teachers caring for 70 pre-school children. Of the 70 children all but four are between the ages of two and six years old. The other four are 11-years-old and have only just started pre-school. The volunteers saw the need for teaching support and began by assisting teachers at the pre-school with English, math and educational interactive play sessions. Lion Encounter’s plan is to increase the scope of lessons held at the school to include music and sports. In addition, special classes have been devised to assist the four 11-year-olds to ultimately skip ahead to Grade 2.

Though the school’s lease expires at the end of December this year and they have a new plot of land to move to, there are no funds to begin building work for classrooms, ablution or kitchen facilities. The Lion Encounter volunteers are hoping they can change this situation soon.

A few kilometers across the border, on the Zimbabwe side, is Monde Primary School, an orphanage with which the volunteers on the Victoria Falls side are involved. With the help of the orphans they painted two of the classroom blocks during the school holidays in August. They are also now involved in further renovating and expanding the school; they will help to source roofing materials for a brand-new classroom block, for instance. The orphans are also taken on field trips to visit the lion and are educated on conservation.

But it doesn’t stop there. Lion Encounter volunteers have also taken on the responsibility to assist with the supply of seeds, labour and knowledge for gardens designated for people in Victoria Falls Town and the Monde village who are living with HIV and AIDS. This agricultural project has been a huge success in that it not only offers an income-generating opportunity for the ailing villagers, but it also provides them with necessary nutritional sustenance. While the produce in these gardens is used mainly for income generation, at times it is consumed by the gardeners themselves.

These are only some of the socially responsible community projects being run by the philanthropic volunteers working at Lion Encounter – an initiative that has taken steps to save the African wild and its inhabitants.

As David says, “The African lions themselves have become a fund-raising ambassador for the African wild and its people – for in saving themselves, they are saving Africa and Africans.”