Kasanga arrives at Woburn!

For those of you who have read the blog then you will know that the elder pair of lions at Linton, Riziki and Karla were born at Woburn Safari Park. So having visited their parents I do like to keep track of what is going on at Woburn lion-wise.
Ever since the death of the last two pride males Sly (Died sometime around 2009) And Shane, passing away sadly last Summer, has left the spot of pride male at Woburn empty, and for a while it got me thinking what would Woburn do?

They had two options they could either;

Give home to a couple of male lions already resident in the UK, all Safari Parks have surplus male lions and there are a couple in zoos already.

OR

They could import fresh blood into the UK, this would not only free up room in foreign collections but it would also freshen the gene pool in the UK, this is something that in the UK I find needs to be monitered.

Here is an article from Woburn Safari Park that they released on their website in Spring 2012, just ready for the new season

Woburn have decided to opt for the second option, Kasanga has arrived from an outside collection. He is possibly one of the youngest male lions that I have seen being intergrated as a Pride male, for example the last males Sly and Shane arrived on the scene when they were seven and five, already fully grown and ready to take control, however Kasanga at the age of two may be sexually mature but is nowhere near fully grown, it will be interesting to see how the match goes, and how well they breed (hopefully not too well) It will also be nice to see cubs born to this brand new blood line, to be sent to other collections around the UK, but we will have to wait and see for now.

This blog gives you the first photos taken of Kasanga for his debut at the Safari Park. And this facebook set gives more photos from Woburn themselves.

The two photos above are from Woburn Safari Parks facebook page and do not belong to me.

Having seen these links and the photos above, Kasanga really does look superb! His mane is certainly very 'heavy' down his neck, going all the way down to his belly and has plenty of colour already. He also looks fairly tall (more like Riziki and not like Zuri, who is very squat and has very short front legs) I will be willing to place my bets on Kasanga turning out to be a pretty spectacular looking male when he is fully grown, hopefully he will be able to keep the rest of the pride members in check (especially the trio of castrated males, if they are still there). However as for all of what I have speculated on, time will tell.

Thanks for reading.

James