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
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