So here we go, here is the guy that I really wanted to see. This is Woburn Safari Park's brand new male lion Kasanga. Kasanga arrived at Woburn earlier this year and his arrival is detailed here in this post.
Kasanga is not only a brand new male lion, but he brings in brand new blood from Holland. Bringing new blood in from Europe is so important in trying to refresh the rather saturated British gene pool of lions, that has just been left to its own devices since Jimmy Chipperfield started off the Safari Park success in 1966 at Longleat.
One thing that was confirmed today is that integrating Kasanga into the already stable group of siblings and cousins present at the moment is going to be a very long and a very difficult process. Kasanga himself is only young, no older than three years old, so he is already a lot younger than the rest of the pride. So to integrate Kasanga in succesfully they will as it has been said in the sign below, have to do it very slowly, with only a couple of females at a time. Introducing him to the females slowly should not have too many troubles, generally the lionesses may give up a bit of a fight, but if Kasanga leaves them to their own devices he should be settled with them.
The really interesting move together will be when he is introduced to the three castrated males. Which I am told today is the idea. The three boys Bala, Ace and Flint are 8 years old, so already a lot older and a lot bigger than Kasanga, they are all absolutely huge! So whether or not they will take kindly to a new younger male strutting his stuff is going to be a tough one, I myself am not convinced, however if they pull it off, all credit goes to the lion team there, and I will be incredibly impressed!
The new lion house and holding paddock is very nicely done, and very nicely placed too. You drive past the holding to get out of the reserve so when lions are in it, such as Kasanga was today, you still get a really good view of them. This may come in use for when cubs are born and are waiting to be introduced to the rest of the Pride.
The house and holding can be seen right from the top of the hills as you enter the reserve and you get a great view of it, especially of Kasanga as he was pacing around the left side of the fence. So as first impressions go, it was a very good one of him!
I must have been stopped by the side of the road every single time I came to visit him for a fair while each time, I was overtaken by quite a number of cars! However I wasn't going to miss seeing Kasanga for anything. He spent a fair while padding along the left side of the paddock and then he went for a walk round and ended up sat outside the house. So him going around for a wander enabled me to take a fair few pictures of him for you all to see.
Kasanga is possibly one of the finest looking male lions that I have ever seen (and I have seen a hell of a lot!) He has a fantastic gold colour, and his mane is fantastic. He has still got a fair bit of growing to do, but for a basic framework as it were, he looks fantastic, his mane is extensive, but not too thick and not too long. He will certainly bring an air of magnificance back to the reserve at Woburn Safari Park. The parks previous male lions Sly and Shane had a very beaten up and very scruffy look to them, if anything Kasanga has been to be the complete opposite. He has the ability to have an almost painted portrait look about him in many photos, and he doesn't have any stumpy legs, or silly curtains because his mane is too large for him, he really is shaping to be a superb looker, and as he gets older, it will just get better and better, as his mane matures into a darker colour around the edges.
As you can see I took as many photos of him as I could, so I thought I would share them all with you all, I hope you all enjoy looking at them. I did get very camera happy!
So here we go, this is Woburn's future, and isn't he superb? This is the beginning of an incredibly slow process but hopefully it wont be too long before Kasanga is seen out in the main reserve with the other lions. Whether or not he will match up to and get on with the three castrated boys is a tricky one, but only time will tell.
Photos of the rest of the lion pride in the reserve in the morning and the afternoon can be found on the blog (linked).
I hope you have all enjoyed reading and looking at this post and all the pictures, it is one that I have really enjoyed writing because it is all so exciting. Nothing ever stays the same especially with lions, and the pride that I saw ten years ago is now on a completely different path to how it was before, and with Kasanga in tow and a lot of careful planning and work, it should all be very successful.
I really do look forward to seeing how it all pans out in the future, and I will definately visit as time goes on, and hopefully it wont be a few too many years or so till a new generation of lions at Woburn is wandering around the reserve.
Cheers
James
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