Wednesday 11 May 2016

 I was trained for Lion observation today, and spent a happy hour by the lion enclosure watching our beautiful couple as they slept, drank and – I won’t say played, they don’t play for reasons that will become obvious if you read this blog – but let’s say ‘interacted’.

Bella

Bella was born in 2002 in a Romanian zoo and sold as a young cub to gypsies for tourist reasons, and during this time she was kept in a trailer entirely inappropriate to her needs.  However as she grew her ‘trainer’ felt she had become too big to keep, so she was sold back to the zoo for breeding purposes. Bella’s living conditions did not improve at the zoo - she was kept in appalling conditions. Her concrete cage was filthy and her small outside area was too cold and snowy for an African lion. She was given a poor diet and developed a number of medical problems that were left untreated.  In time she  developed a severe curve in her spine, and deformed back legs, making walking painful and difficult for her. She was also going blind due to cataracts in both eyes.  Bella had been severely mistreated and had cigarette burn marks to her skin and these also needed to be treated.

In 2007 the zoo was shut down and thanks to campaigning from the group ‘Lion’s Roar’ and the Born Free Foundation, Bella was taken to a different facility where she was assessed, placed in a much better environment and medical treatment was given including eye surgery. Unfortunately one eye was too damaged to be saved and had to be removed.  After treatment she was able to see out of her remaining eye but not well, and she often walked into fences and so on.  However, with the care she was given she began to recover from the appalling years she had suffered in captivity. She still has a number of severe medical conditions that can not be reversed, and as such she would never be able to hunt and feed herself in the wild. She also needs regular pain medication for her back and legs.
In March 2009 Bella was transported to Africa and the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre to live in a specially built enclosure and have a life unlike anything she had experienced before. Virginia McKenna, the founder of the Born Free Foundation was there to open Bella’s last ever enclosure and release her into the freedom and safety of her new home.  We very much hope that she will stay here for the rest of her life.

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Simba

In February 2014 Bella found a friend when Simba arrived at the centre.   Simba was born January 8th, 2005, in a French zoo, Parc Zoologique du Bouy and he lived there for several years before he was acquired by an animal trainer in Vernay.  Here Simba was housed in a ‘beast wagon’ – which was a lorry trainer, hardly big enough for him to turn around in.  When the trailer was cleaned out, Simba was allowed access to a small circular ‘exercise cage’ attached to the trailer.  Not surprisingly, Simba would then often refuse to return to the confines of the trailer but the exercise cage wasn’t secure enough for him to remain in. It is hard to imagine how much Simba must have suffered during this time through the physical discomfort of his cramped conditions, the emotional distress of loneliness and boredom day after day. Thankfully the French Authorities stepped in and ordered that Simba be handed over to their care.

At the end of 2013, thanks to a concerted effort by Foundation 30 Millions d’Amis, a French NGO, and the Natuurhulpcentrum (NHC), Simba was taken to a temporary new home in Belgium before being transported here in February 2014. Here he was placed in an enclosure next to Bella’s, and when the staff felt that they had bonded and so would not attack each other, the were united in their new joint home.  Two years later, and Bella and Simba spend almost all their time together, and are clearly very fond of each other.  It is a joy to see them in their forest enclosure where they have plenty of trees, bushes, shelter, space and water.  Two built up ponds have been provided so the lions don’t have to bend to lap up water, as neither would be able to do this without considerable pain due to spinal injuries.  Officially, both lions still belong to Born Free, who undertook their rescues and eventual transport to Lilongwe. Here at the sanctuary we want to make sure both Bella and Simba have the most natural and comfortable lives they can, and find peace and happiness.  They are carefully monitored, fed appropriately, and receive medical treatment for all their medical problems.   They are still wild animals, of course, and could never be approached by a human without the safety of a very strong wire fence.  Simba considers the enclosure to be very much his own territory, and Bella to be his girl, and this means he will at time stalk and spring at those who pass by his enclosure.

Lilongwe is a sanctuary for the animals though, not a zoo.  Visitors may be able to catch a glimpse of the lions in the trees or by a pond, but this can’t be guaranteed.  Observations by staff and volunteers are undertaken discretely as Simba would very much resent being watched, just as we would.
I watched Bella and Simba today, and loved seeing them together.  Bella has very weak back legs and walks with her hind end very low to the ground, as if an enormous weight had been put on her lower back.  She enjoys walking around the enclosure and being close to Simba, and she sees well enough to get around.  Simba has a severe limp and as times his back legs give way altogether, so he does not walk great distances.  He always wants to know where Bella is, however, and will go in search of her if she heads off for a walk and disappears out of sight.

During observations we are looking to estimate how much activity/walking the animals undertake in a 3 hour slot – failure to walk at all would suggest very high levels of pain that day and pain killing medication is tailored each day to their needs. We also note whether the lions are drinking much – too much could indicate a problem with kidneys, too little could end up with problems through dehydration. We also look for any social interaction – this is because Bella can not see well and at times approach Simba from behind, which he finds very upsetting because of course that is where he is weakest.   At times he responds to this with aggression.  Obviously we don’t want the animals to fight, so we need to be aware of how they are responding to each other.  We also look for nasal discharge, coughing and sneezing as these might indicate some form of infection. Behaviours such as repeated licking of fur, repeated yawning, fake chewing/smacking lips, and pacing up and down – these are all signs of stress/boredom, and this is monitored so we can provide so called “enrichment” to give them something to do.  This might be something as simple as changing food pails, changing some landscaping inside the enclosure, or introducing new objects to the enclosure.

So today was a thrilling day for me, although I can’t honestly claim that I believe Simba or Bella were in the slightest bit interested in the numpty peering at them from behind a tree.  I look forward to lots more sessions on lion obs over the next 10 weeks.