Turkana - A Tribute.

TURKANA 1st JULY 1996 - 9th MARCH 2013

I found out the very sad news of Turkana's passing on the evening of the 9th March the day it happened. I am willing to admit that I did go very red-eyed. Turkana was the first lion that I ever saw, he was the lion who set up with the inspiration that I needed to continue my interest, in a way you all have Turkana to thank for the blog that you some of you may read every day.

Turkana lived at the Park with his twin sister Mana who sadly passed on last year. Her tribute can be seen on this post. Turkana and Mana were born to Jade and Blanco at Paradise Wildlife Park on the 1st July 1996. I recently found out that they did have another litter mate, who ended up back in Arabia. However it is impossible due to that incredibly leap in location, to know whether she is still alive or not. Turkana was born incredibly ill, he suffered five hernia operations and his stomach lining was considered so thin it was predicted that he would not reach past cubhood. However after his final hernia operation Turkana's life literally started again and he just kept getting better and better. Strangely enough this is something that I too was incredibly ill when I was born and has three hernias when I was very little, apart from I had three operations, poor old Turkana had two more. One thing we had in common!

The first time that I saw a lion was at Paradise Wildlife Park on a very warm day in May in 2001. I had been so excited, I had been reading and watching lions on the television for so long, collecting photos, you name it, but I had never seen one. Sadly all of my visits to Whipsnade Zoo happened straight after the death of their elderly lions in the old Whipsnade Dell Enclosures. So this was it, my first lion. My parents had deliberately sought out Paradise because they had lions, I was so excited. I came round the corner and there they were, and I was absolutely stunned. Turkana and Mana were just coming up for their fifth birthday, fully grown and fully mature, they looked superb. And as you can see below, they really did. Turkana's mane was rich in all the colours that a proper lion has, gold, blonde, brown and black around the edge, he really was such a looker. And in superb condition, quite ironic considering he had such a sick cubhood as explained above.

Turkana and Mana made a first impression that has lasted right up until this day. Turkana and Mana were always very special, and will always be remembered. I made it a priority to go and see them both atleast yearly to see how they were doing. Unlike the four lions at Linton seeing them growing up from cubs to adults, with Turkana and Mana I saw them go from their finest at five years old and in their prime, and sadly to their death recently. Below shows Turkana standing, as you can see his shape is absolutely perfect. And his mane was spread evenly around his head and shoulders, not over done, simply how it should be.

The next photo on here shows Turkana in 2008 aged twelve. Here he is middle aged, not quite as youthful as he once was, but his colour and figure still remains. His mane is still as rich and as thick. Looking at these pictures Turkana has a very long face, rather different to some of the rounder looking faces that are characterful of a huge majority of lions at the moment, Riziki as a big example. Turkana's line has now come to an end, with no cubs born to him or his siblings (as far as I know) it looks like no lions will quite look like Turkana ever again. This may be a shame, but nevertheless makes him somewhat unique.

Turkana and Mana, like all lions were sociable animals and like all lions had their social times and their own times, but these two did get on really well as you can see in the photo above. Turkana and Mana were doted on by Nick Loudon. Nick worked at Paradise since before they were born, and was instructed to hand rear Turkana. Nick took on the very sick "Baby T" as I he was known and nursed him through his five hernia operations. The closeness between Nick and Turkana is definately something incredibly special. Nick installed a heater in the lion house for Turkana and as a rule gave him more bedding after Mana died, as he no longer had anyone to snuggle up to.

The next two photos were taken in February 2011. It had been three years since I had last seen Turkana and Mana I was desperate to go and see them again. Turkana and Mana were approaching fifteen that summer and it was this visit when to me they first started to look their age. Turkana had gone a lot paler. His mane had lost the richness of colour that it used to have. Also as you can see above his nose, he suffered from a skin complaint, this is something that Nick told me his father had suffered from as well, so it was probably something genetic. He was definately an older looking lion to the previous photos that you have seen of him. 

However I was assured by Nick that apart from the obvious skin complaint both lions were doing perfectly fine, in superb shape and health, and indeed they were.

It turns out that Mana's death on the 16th June 2012 was the result of some sort of spinal problem, what started as a limp, turned into the complete loss of her back legs, something that would have been impossible for her to deal with. Mana died next to Nick, and she will never be forgotten. Mana was fifteen, two weeks short of her sixteenth birthday, a reasonable age for a lioness, but many have outlived that age. Below is one of my last photos of her taken on my visit in February 2011.

Having not seen the lions for nearly two years, and with death of Mana. I decided to go and visit last year in early December. It was fantastic to see him again, he seemed in perfect health, he was in good shape, and was bouncing back and forth for his food when it was fed to him, Nick said that he did always love his food.

This is not the photo that I intended it to be. This was the last photo that I ever took of Turkana. I had been meaning to visit him, but due to working and petrol prices I was unable to see him before his death. I was planning to visit him later on this month but sadly I have to write this instead. Turkana's death was a true shock to myself. Having seen him only last December, he looked in perfect health, and we all seemed to think that he had another three years in him atleast. 

He really was a handsome boy. To me he looked his age there, his mane was almost white in places, and it was slightly thinner then it had been previously. He may look quite short to you, but he was a typically small lion anyway. Definately smaller than Riziki and Zuri, however it could be the other way round, maybe in the UK, we are breeding bigger lions than would normally be seen in the wild, this is certainly true for mane sizes and so on etc.

To see more photos of Turkana and Mana please look on the posts that are printed below:

• To see the pictures from my visit on the 4th December last year please see this link.
• These are the photos from my visit to see Turkana and Mana in February 2011 aged fourteen, ten years on from my first visit. Please see this link.
• These pictures were taken in February 2008, showing them at twelve years old, please see this link.
• Pictures in this post are from the Summer of 2006, showing Turkana and Mana in their prime at ten years old. Please see this link.

Below are a quartet of photos donated by regular readers Nic and Diane. These photos were taken only a few days before he died, and show him looking a bit thin. And incredibly pale as had been explained before, you can really see it in these photos. They also said that on this visit they were two peices of untouched meat in his enclosure, perhaps indicating that all he was not well, as it had already been stated that Turkana did love his food.

Turkana was put under anesthetic as his poor health within his final 24 hours was giving huge warning to the team at Paradise. It was then discovered that he had a severe tumour, it was then decided that it would be best for him to not wake him up, a very difficult decision, done to keep Turkana in the best comfort possible.

I will always remember Turkana, he really did play a very important part in letting my inspiration grow, and I will never forget him. Below is a photo that I think is fantastic, here Turkana is 18 months old, after his hernia operations with his keeper Nick Loudon, the last time he went in with him. This photo was taken from Paradise Wildlife Park's Facebook Page.

Turkana was named after lake Turkana, a truly remarkable and very wild place, a very fitting name for such a remarkable creature.

There is only one more thing that is to be said now.

Rest In Peace Turkana, you will always be remembered.