Zuri & Safi - 13th June 2013

As I promised, I will be taking regular photos during my days at work at the zoo and here I have proof! Here is a short set of photos that I took on my lunch yesterday. Safi was a right show off infront of the visitors, but she was more than happy to come down and to say hello as you can see.

These photos need no introductions so I hope that you enjoy looking at them all! As you can see Zuri does like to spend the warm summer days dozing like a proper lion would!

Below is a slightly edited version of one of the photos above, Safi was showing off infront of visitors trying to get lion kisses and attention from Zuri but he was having none of it! You can really see how much bigger his face is compared to her as he watches over her.

If anyone is interested in meeting these lions, I am now doing regular talks every weekends and during the Holidays at 2:00 in the afternoon by the lions, Zuri & Safi. So if any of you regular blog readers, do want to pop in and say hello, I am more than happy to have a chat with you all afterwards.

Cheers

James

Where It All started - Linton Zoo August 2006

Right, here we go something that you should all enjoy seeing!

I dug these photos out the other day, as I have started writing and combining several photo albums together and I have now started on the huge task of all my Linton visits! So this is when I visited the zoo in August 2006 having only seen Riziki and Karla once before in 2004. I was desperate to go and see them again and I had heard that they had a litter of cubs too, this was another big draw aswell as their older cub Safina being hand-reared at the zoo. With all of the new lions, this meant that my dad pretty much had to take me to go and see them, so in August we headed back up to Linton to see how everything had changed. 

We went straight to the lion enclosure to find Riziki asleep on his platform with no sign of other lions, he looked so much older than he did two years ago, as he had now turned three years old, he was near enough fully grown now, his mane was yet to darken and fill out a bit. So we left Riziki to sleep whilst wandering round the rest of the zoo for a while.

When we next returned to the lions, Riziki had awoken and Karla had appeared. Throughout the rest of the day one by one the cubs started to appear from their hiding place in one of the bushes behind the platform. It was great to see them all out on the platform with their parents. This was the first time that lion cubs had been born in this enclosure for over fifteen years atleast, so it was fantastic to see. The next few pictures show Riziki and Karla with their cubs, notice how much younger they both look compared to nowadays!

Rizi has always looked great on that platform, and when he watches you on there it is almost like he is watching you and letting you come in to his land, it's a sight that you just feel that you have to respect. 

However another little lioness that I was desperate to see was Safina. Safina as i'm sure you all know was born at Linton Zoo to Riziki and Karla on the 30th November 2005 but was hand-reared. So when I visited in 2006 she was being held temporarily in one of the leopard/cat enclosures while her new enclosure (the one that they are in now) was being built. As a cub this was a great enclosure for her as all of the platforms allowed her to have a good view of all the visitors and she loved to play around infront of them!

I will never forget the first time that I met Safi, here she was a lovely little lion cub, coming up to see some of her visitors. Both of us having no idea what would happen in the future. I am indeed very lucky to have formed a relationship and bond with her over the last seven years, and it really has been worth every second of every visit. Wasn't she absolutely beautiful as a cub? And i'm sure you will all agree that she has always remained that stunning all the way through her life so far, she really is just one fantastic animal, a real star.

And if that wasn't enough what was in store for the rest of the afternoon was just the cherry on the top! Having been running around the zoo as a twelve year old between the different lion enclosures very quickly I was noticed by one of the keepers who spoke to my Dad and my Nanny and told them to keep an eye on me running around, however my nanny used this as an opportunity to tell the lady how interested I was and I showed her all my pictures. We then headed down to the coffee shop later and got asked if I was the little boy who liked the lions. When i replied with yes another lady said she was just going to go and get something, and she came back with a lion cub in her hands! I really could not believe what I was seeing, and i had to do several double takes before I realised what was infront of me!

It was definately one of the most life changing moments in my life, and a moment that I will never ever forget. So here he is, this is a very little Zuri at six weeks old, and wasn't he absolutely lovely?! To me he really hasn't changed a bit, he has exactly the same face, he's just one big true lion now. As i'm sure you can see by the big smile on my face I loved every moment of meeting him, and I promised that I would always come back and visit him as often as I could. So i can't really be any happier working at the zoo so I get to see him and Safina every working day. For that reason and all of the other animals I work with, I have the best job in the World.

I really will never forget the day, this was when I met my future in that little lion cub, and I haven't looked back since.

I hope you have all loved looking at these pictures and reading everything that I have written. This will hopefully give you all a bit more of an understanding as to why this blog exists.

Thankyou everyone for reading and more will be posted soon.

James

Lionesses arrive for Zulu and Masai - June 2013

Now approaching their fourth year, I have been thinking that it has been

about time for Zulu and Masai to be paired up if they were going to be bred in the future. So I was delighted to find out that two lionesses arrived at Noahs Ark Zoo Farm last week for Zulu and Masai. The picture below shows one of the males,  I am not sure when this photo was taken but it is very interesting for two reasons;

• The first reason being that their mane is incredibly light compared to their father and grandfather at that age. This could be an age thing, they are only four years old, but generally at that age manes are darker than that. My view is that they have a lack of female company and that will have an effect on their testosterone levels. Males that have female company from a young age, will have a darker mane straight away. For example when Turkana at Paradise was only two years old, because he was in an enclosure with four other girls his mane was huge and very dark and a very young age. With both males at Linton having female company since a very young age once again their manes would have developed at a faster pace compared to those who have grown up on their own such as Zulu and Masai.

• The second reason is that the two boys seem to be a huge mix between their father Zuri and their grandfather Riziki. They really do look superb, and although they have quite a long face, they have a very bold eye ridge and mouth just like Riziki.

Riziki above shows his very bold face and eye ridge that can be seen in his grandson below. Whereas Zuri below has a much 'softer' face in comparison to Zuri, and a much longer face. 

Zulu or Masai below shows a real mix of characteristics inherited from their father and grandfather. From what I can match up I have to say that my personal view is that face wise they are more like their grandfather Riziki, so they definately look a lot like their mum Safi! 

They really have changed since I last saw them at Linton Zoo as cubs in January 2010.

Below is the really interesting photo of one of the two boys resident at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm.

It is great to see the boys so grown up now and I cannot wait to see how they get on with the two females, it will also be interesting to see how they will develop over time within the next two years.

The link to the article where I got the photo from is shown here.

The two lionesses have come from Heythrop Zoological Gardens - 'Amazing Animals' so I have no idea what their heritage is. However it will be interesting to see what they look like and I will try my best to find some photos for you all to see. Another interesting thing is that they don't intend on keeping two pairs and seem to want to send another pair somewhere else. I personally am not sure if there is any space for a new pair of breeding lions in the UK, but i'm sure somewhere will manage to snap them up, so any progress about that will be posted as soon as I know. 

So with the arrival of lionesses it might be that cubs may be on their way very soon aswell! Any news will be posted up as soon as I know.

Thanks everyone for reading, and I will keep you all updated as soon as any news reaches me.

James