Thursday 7 March 2013

Lion Update - 7th March 2013

As regular readers of the blog, Diane and Nic will know from their visit to Linton Zoo on the 5th March, I am more than happy to show people round Linton Zoo if they visit me when I am working. It was fantastic to see how regular readers have an interest with the lions that I write about and to share information with them.

This post with pictures from both myself and Diane and Nic will form an update of the year so far, to give you all an idea as to how all the lions are at the moment. These pictures give an idea of the majority of collections within the East of England, and is a good starting point. So a huge thankyou to Diane and Nic for sending me these photos. Hopefully with the help of other readers these updates may be a thing that will occur more and more in the future, as I can't be everywhere at once!!

Firstly a look at Woburns new boy Kasanga. As you will know if you read the blog I went to visit Kasanga late last year, you can see my photos in this post. Kasanga really is a complete stunner of a lion, but he is still very young, and compared to the size of the castrated boys he is still very small. He really is going to be a magnificent male when fully grown but I must stress that he is still very young. Reintroduction into the main group have been slow and at current he has only been reintroduced to a couple of lionesses when they are in season. My gut feeling about him settling in with the three castrated boys is that it will not work, they may be castrated but they are huge and very tight knit. I really do not think that they will take kindly to the arrival of a new lion, especially one like Kasanga.

Kasanga may only be three or so years old, but he has certainly developed very quickly. His mane is very long and covers a fair amount of his body already. He has still got to butch up a bit and his mane is still yet to darken. However this could be from his slight immaturity as a youngster and also his current lack of permanent female company. It is quite often thought that dark manes can be linked to the level of dominance within a group situation and also the level of female company.



Next up on the update post is Turkana at Paradise Wildlife Park. I myself visited Turkana in December last year as you can see in this post. The picture below gives a really good idea of how Turkana is doing. Here he is on top of his platform, this shows that he is still agile enough to climb and is still in a healthy shape. He does look a little bit thin and his skin does look more and more delicate but this is only natural from a male of his age, as he will be seventeen this year. He is also of a reasonably small size, but since he has always been small this is not a worry. Turkana did lose his sister and life long companion Mana in the Summer of last year, at present he is under the care of his life long keeper Nick Loudon who spends all of the day when he is at the Park with him to make sure that he is doing okay. He now has his own special heater in his house and is now given an even bigger bed to keep himself nice and warm as he no longer has a companion, he really is being kept in top class health by Nick. Turkana may be looking a bit pale and slightly dark in the face but this is just a natural part of looking older, his father suffered skin complaints too, so this is no surprise, however they do seem to be clearing up on his skin at the moment. So it looks like Turkana has survived this very cold Winter and hopefully he will be going for another couple of years yet.


 Not so much news for this photo, but a lovely photo of him. This is Spike the resident pride male at Whipsnade. He is a cousin of Zuri. For those of you who know Zuri you will be able to see quite a few similarities between the two. They both have huge long wavy manes and short stunted front legs. However there is one big difference in that Spike has a slightly hairy belly, and Zuri has no sign of hair there at all. To me this is a clear indication that a hairy belly should not be used as an accurate way to determine subspecies, and it really does vary from individual even within family groups. So it really is fantastic to see such a clear photo of him.


Below I have a couple of photos that are great to compare. These are Zero at Africa Alive! (Previously Suffolk Wildlife Park) And then Riziki at Linton Zoo. A photo taken by myself, and he was right at the back allowing a clear photo to be taken (well just about, the double mesh does not help!). These two are actually siblings, and were both born at Woburn Safari Park to Tamby and Sly. Zero has got a much lighter mane than Riziki, but his belly hair is constant all the way from his elbows right down to his back legs, whereas Riziki just has hair near his back legs and it does not follow right up to his elbows. 

Both of their faces are similiar, they have bold and very round faces. This is a big characteristic of the males born within this pride during that particular era.


These two really are superb males, both in the prime of their lives now. Riziki will be ten years old this year, and Zero will be nine. Interestingly Zero was named due to his lack of mane as a cub. His mane is still slightly shorter and lighter than Riziki's. He is not as impressive I think, but he is certainly all there as a male lion, he has a very good shape, and reasonably tall, but his mane seems to be lacking just a little bit.

Both of these male lions have bred. Riziki's cubs have been sent to other zoos whereas Zero's have stayed with him (as far as I know the males have been castrated). So this particular line will continue through the generations, which is good news I think, because this is a particularly superb strain of lions, one that doesn't seem to be inbred compared to other lines of lions in the UK.


Below are four final photos from Diane and Nic of Zuri and Safina on Tuesday (5th March). For the latest news on Zuri and Safi please look on my latest post from a couple of days ago on here.





Zuri and Safina had just been fed, so here you can see Safi enjoying her meat and Zuri sleeping it off! Both of these lions gorged on their meat before sleeping the rest of the afternoon, this is natural wild behaviour. Both pairs of lions were fed on Tuesday. Karla managed to distract Riziki away from his and tried to steal the remains, this she succeeded in! No wonder why she is looking big at the moment, and no wonder why they have to be fed seperate some times. Karla is a very fiesty lioness, and very cheeky too, and with Riziki being just so laid back and chilled, she is able to get away with things like that! Unfortunately for Zuri, Safi is just the same, and as she is a lot more agile than he is, she can get away with more as he cannot keep up with her! Or he cannot be bothered, either way she gets away with winding him up!

So I hope you have all enjoyed reading this post. So a huge thanks to Diane and Nic for sending me these photos. More and more photos from Linton Zoo will always be up on the blog, now that I am working there. 

Happy reading, and more will be up soon.

James

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