So here is a follow on from my earlier post on my circuit around the lion reserve this morning. Now here are my photos from my two circuits in the afternoon!
Due to the lions being so active, and there being eight of them, I did make sure I took a photo of everything that happened, as you can see by this incredibly lengthy post!
Just to clear up a few things the pride at the moment is the leftover cubs from the old adults. All of these cubs were born from two sisters Tamby and Amber, they themselves were both born at the park. Their fathers were Sly and Shane, these two boys were brought in from Knowsley Safari Park in 2003 after the death of Tamby and Ambers father Legs Diamond and his companion Romeo. After quite a few litters, several cubs got sent of to different zoos, and the first cub born to Tamby was Riziki. Many of you will know that Riziki currently resides at Linton Zoo, which was were he was sent to be hand reared with his cousin Karla.
So with crossing different names off my family tree I can be certain that the individuals left in the Woburn Pride are...
The three castrated males Bala, Flint, Ace and their sister Tyra. These four were born on the 26th April 2004 to Tamby and Sly, this makes them direct siblings to Riziki.
And out of a process of elimination from the records Woburn have sent me it seems that there is a further litter from Sly and Tamby born on the 4th October 2005 and that these females are Dakota, Abi and Codie.
The remaining female should be Tullulah who was born to Sly and Amber on the 26th March 2004. Her two remaining litter mates are now at Colchester Zoo.
So as you can see the pride is now made up of the 'leftovers' from a succesful breeding pride, a mixture of brothers and sisters now that all of the generation above them have died. Tamby died only three or four months ago, which would have made her 14, which is a reasonable age for a lioness. I was also told that her sister Gemma who would have been born in 1992 died rather recently too, making her a lot older than Tamby.
Here are all of my photos from the afternoon for you to see...
This one particular female above was creating quite a stir trying to escape the eyes of the landrover on more than one occasion, eventually towards the end of the day she got away with it, and the rest of the pride came to join her as they made their way towards the house and holding area to be shut in for the evening.
As you can see the pride made it out, and you can see all of the different shapes and sizes that vary from individual to individual all of them are different including the castrated males, they were fascinating to watch especially as they moved straight past my car without a care in the World! One of the boys must have been close to brushing my bumper as he went past as he was incredibly close. However for these guys having a car watching them is nothing new, so they looked at me without any further glance at all.
This picture below has to be one of my favourites of the day. You can see the entire pride spaced out within the reserve and you can see the huge extent of the reserve itself.
For me, this visit to Woburn was a really odd but inspiring visit. This is where my love for lions really started to grow, and the last time I came to visit Woburn more than six years ago all of the adults were still there and all of the lions pictured today were all cubs. It really does show how even in a short amount of time everything can change. These lions are following the footsteps of many many generations who lived in this reserve before them, and as time goes on, hopefully in the future they will continue to do so.
As you can tell it was quite an emotional visit, especially seeing Kasanga for the first time.
Woburns pride does seem to have stagnated over the past few years were the lions who have seperated have continued to breed. For example their siblings at Linton Zoo are now great grandparents, making this group here three generations behind. This shows how quickly things change in lion society.
The three castrated boys really just do look odd to me, with their fluffy bellys and puffy faces, and extremely butch bodies they do look incredibly out of place. However a few years back, Woburn did used to advertise to have the biggest group of lions in the UK, perhaps this is what these guys were here to do. Sadly this is no longer the case and with only eight individuals the pride is now the smallest major pride in the UK.
It does look like that in keeping these three boys in the pride, they may have made the long term future a lot harder than it could otherwise have been, it may mean having to exclude them permanently from the pride if they do not accept Kasanga properly. However Shane seemed to do a very good job of keeping them in order, lets hope Kasanga can, he is still very young and so I am told a bit of a woss! So we shall have to wait and see. The good news is that the lions do all seem to get on well and after a few moves in the last year or two, squabbles and fighting does now seem to be at a lower level.
I really do hope that Kasanga integrates well as it is about time that a proper lion was wandering around this reserve, it is just what it deserves.
Cheers
James
