But the rules are often much more blurred on private reserves, where governments often have less legal or practical oversight. Cecil, who was being studied by scientists at Oxford University, was wearing a GPS collar when he was killed. He left behind a pride with young cubs. In South Africa, there are more game animals on private land some 20 million than in public parks 5 to 6 million. So even bigger picture, people need to look at the overall role of these private reserves in conservation, Honey says.
Some private reserves are very well managed and support science-based conservation programs, such as captive breeding and reintroduction and public education campaigns.
But others were hastily cobbled together, sometimes on marginal lands of little ecological value. Sometimes species that are exotic to a region are brought in to attract tourists, even though staff may be ill-equipped to manage them. All rights reserved. Update: This story was updated on March 5 at pm ET with a line to make clear that Richardson wasn't leading a lion walk for tourists on the day the woman was mauled, although that is a practice followed by some other game managers.
Supporters of Richardson say he does not conduct lion walks for tourists, although experts warn that any close interaction between people and lions can be dangerous. Share Tweet Email. Why it's so hard to treat pain in infants. And no one could resist it. Unlike lots of other animals that could easily kill us—alligators, say, or poisonous snakes—lions are gorgeous, with soft faces and snub noses and round, babyish ears.
As cubs, they are docile enough for anyone to cuddle. By the time the lions are 2 years old, though, they are too dangerous for any such interactions.
Richardson became obsessed with the young lions and spent as much time as he could at Cub World. He discovered he had a knack for relating to them that was different and deeper than what the rest of the visitors and staff had; the animals seemed to respond to his confidence and his willingness to roar and howl his version of lion language. Lions are the most social of big cats, living in groups and collaborating on hunting, and they are extremely responsive to touch and attention.
Richardson played with the cubs as if he were another lion, tumbling and wrestling and nuzzling. He got bitten and clawed and knocked over frequently, but he felt the animals accepted him. The relationship sustained him. He became most attached to Tau and Napoleon, and to Meg and Ami. He began spending so much time at the park that Fuhr gave him a job. One thing is certain: None of the Cub World animals—or any cubs from similar petting farms popping up around South Africa—were successfully introduced to the wild.
Having been handled since birth, they were not fit for living independently. Even if they were, there was nowhere for them to be released. Each park has as many lions as it can accommodate.
There is no spare room at all, and this presents a counterintuitive proposition: that successful lion conservation depends not on increasing the lion population but in recognizing that it is already probably too large for the dwindling habitats that can sustain it. Lions are not in short supply; space for them to live wild, however, is.
Some of the surplus animals from petting facilities end up in zoos and circuses; others are sent to Asia, where their bones are used in folk medicine.
Many are sold to one of the roughly registered lion breeders in South Africa, where they are used to produce more cubs. Cub petting is a profitable business, but there is a constant need for new cubs, since each one can be used only for a few months.
According to critics, breeders remove newborns from their mothers shortly after birth, so the females can be bred again immediately, rather than waiting for them to go through nursing and weaning.
Of the approximately 6, captive lions in South Africa, most live in breeding farms, cycling through pregnancy over and over again. The rest of the extra lions end up as trophies in commercial hunts, in which they are held in a fenced area so they have no chance to escape; sometimes they are sedated so that they are easier targets.
The practice is big business in South Africa, where it brings in nearly a hundred million dollars a year. Up to 1, lions are killed in canned hunts in South Africa annually. The hunters come from all over the world, but most are from the United States.
In an email, Fuhr acknowledged that cubs raised at Lion Park had in the past ended up as trophies in canned hunts. After Richardson made a fuss, Fuhr finally agreed to arrange for their return.
Richardson raced to retrieve them from the farm that he says was an astonishing sight—a vast sea of lionesses in crowded corrals. Cub petting provided financial incentive to breed captive lions, resulting in semi-tame cubs who had no reasonable future anywhere. He was part of a cycle that was dooming endless numbers of animals. Thanks to a television special featuring him in one of his lion embraces, Richardson had begun to attract international attention. He was now in an untenable position, celebrating the magnificence of lions but doing so by demonstrating an unusual ease with them, something that seemed to glorify the possibility of taming them.
And he was doing so while working at a facility that contributed to their commodification. At the same time, he felt directly responsible for 32 lions, 15 hyenas and four black leopards, and had no place for them to go. Although the researchers had collected a lot of data on these wild lions, the government asked for proof and researchers needed a comparative model to prove their theory.
Each day of the research, we were able to collect saliva swabs and faecal samples to further ascertain a model. This study was only possible due to my relationships with the lions. Now, there are models to help not just lions but other predator cats in the wild.
The outcomes also provided information that can help NGOs to tackle carnivore coexistence issues on the ground. Another incredible study we facilitated was the oxytocin trials we performed last year with researcher Jessica Burkhart that proved beneficial for wild lions. As habitats shrink and wildlife management becomes more demanding, there is an increased need for relocation of wildlife. This can be stressful and disrupt natural bonding behaviour for lions. Vets thus administer heavy tranquilisers in an attempt to stave off the aggression of translocated lions and help them bond and settle into new environments.
Oxytocin is a naturally produced hormone that promotes bonding behaviour such as head nuzzling in lions. Administering a natural hormone can decrease the side effects of drugs currently used and also assist with healing and pain in captive lions. Jessica performed oxytocin trials on the sanctuary lions to assess the benefit of using oxytocin administered intra-nasally. Cats traditionally do not enjoy being sprayed in the face, but our lions enjoy the stimulation of me coming in to spray them with citronella and rub fly ointment on their ears.
They cooperated and enjoyed this scientific trial. This research has significant implications for improving interventions with wild cats and care for captive cats. Neither study has been published yet. Our foundation has helped protect the wild lions of Namibia through supporting the work of the Namibian Lion Trust formerly known as AfriCat North.
We want to do much more in this space, but we are a fledgeling organisation and still in our infancy. Less salient, but perhaps more pertinent, is how I have used my platforms to speak to issues facing both wild and captive lions.
Drawing a concrete correlation between TV, films and new media and the effect on the subject wild lions is difficult however worth considering. When people love something, they want to protect it. Story, although also challenging to measure, is a powerful education tool. I have been supporting Painted Dog Conservation Inc. These funds have helped protect carnivores in Zambia, by funding the purchase of vehicles, radio collars and telemetry equipment, and building rehabilitation facilities. There are studies an example can be found here that have been conducted that suggest that the actual and statistical educational value of captive wild animal centres is negligible.
Do you disagree with these findings? KR: I do disagree with these findings, as illustrated in my answer above. The above study is focused on zoos, specifically one zoo in Finland. The above study deduced there are no positive behavioural outcomes for visitors observing animals in captivity.
That may be the case in this instance. It is often these engagements that result in high-value donors or bequeathments that sustain the work they do.
Are large donations from visitors not positive behavioural outcomes? Surely that is all the public can do to assist wildlife conservation efforts? A day in our sanctuary is not what some may imagine — no one is wondering around randomly taking selfies with animals like in zoos. We have three guided tours per week, and these guests are driven in a game vehicle while provided with a large swathe of educational information about where the animals came from, how they are cared for, the captive lion breeding industry, canned lion hunting, and raising awareness about the plight of lions in the wild and what can be done to help them.
Small groups of volunteers are working in the sanctuary. We have many return volunteers. Many of our volunteers have gone on to study nature conservation or veterinary science. The same can be said for some of our online supporters. We get thousands of messages from teachers, young students, artists and business owners who relay that, what they have learnt from our channel has changed their perspectives on lions.
They are upset and shocked about canned hunting. Some write to us and say they are ashamed that many years ago they naively had a cub petting experience in South Africa, and they want to make up for it somehow. These individuals are doing presentations in schools, speaking to their peers and campaigning in their hometowns for lions.
We have so much evidence of this it is difficult to aggregate. Has any been purchased and, if so, where? What plans do you have for further land purchase? KR: Yes. We are in the final stages of buying 1, hectares of wildlife habitat on the southeastern corner of the Dinokeng Big Five Game Reserve in Gauteng.
The foundation will protect this land in perpetuity as part of a wider reserve that is supported by our government. In South Africa, protected areas are surrounded by private landowners who can use the land however they want. So, you have wildlife habitat surrounded by agricultural farms, hunting farms and even cub petting and breeding facilities.
For this reason, it is essential to, wherever possible, buy back this habitat, open it up to the wider reserve and safeguard these expanded swathes of wildlife habitat. This is a fundamental approach that needs to be engaged in South Africa.
We are currently transforming a former commercial camp on this land into an education centre, which will be the base of our work with the rural communities surrounding these areas. These are the communities that resort to wildlife snares and poaching for survival. Recently a wild male lion was killed in a snare of this kind, in Dinokeng. The land has also been poorly managed and needs a lot of input to restore habitat health.
As Kevin grew up, he planned to follow a career with animals and set his sights on veterinary science. However during his teens his focus was far from his studies and the young rebel was not accepted onto the course.
He shifted his focus to zoology, before finally completing his BSc majoring in anatomy and physiology. Although he started his career at a lion park that allowed cub-petting for tourists, he began to understand the pitfalls of this industry, and never felt comfortable with the answers he had been given as to what ultimately happened to the lion cubs once they grew up.
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