Lion Evening Success! - Saturday 10th August

On Saturday 10th August as I told you all on my last post, I organised a lion evening at the zoo that I work at, the wonderful Linton Zoo. And there was no better day to hold it then the first ever World Lion Day.

This event was organised to celebrate the tenth birthdays of our lions Riziki and Karla as well as our younger lion Zuri's seventh birthday. Not only a birthday celebration it also gave us the opportunity to raise money for our supported lion charity "Lion Guardians".

The evening started off with a guided walk and talk by myself stopping off first of all at the oldest lion enclosure where Riziki and Karla live, this is how I see it the birthplace of most of the lions in the UK population, it's amazing how just one little enclosure in a little Cambridgeshire zoo can contribute so much to the whole captive population of lions, a very special place indeed. It all started with the first pair Dusty and Tanya, who were housed originally in the old snow leopard enclosure back in the day with indoor viewing and outdoor enclosures this would have been state of the art, but of course a lot has changed in the zoo world in forty years. The second pair of lions Jaspa and Lucy lived in the enclosure where Riziki and Karla are now, it is here where close to a hundred cubs were born from these two, some of which were sent to Woburn Safari Park in the 1980's, this is where Riziki and Karla were born. Jaspa and Lucy's last cub Lily died in 2002, leaving us lion-less for the first time in thirty years, something that we needed to change! So in 2003 Riziki and Karla arrived. Riziki's very strong likeness to Jaspa makes us think that Riziki is descended from the lions we sent to Woburn back then, this would be a lovely thought.

The next stop was at the snow leopard enclosure where we house our two snow leopards Centurio and Lhamo where the visitors learnt about how these secretive and shy cats survive in the wild, and that actually we know very little about them. This stop was significantly shorter than the rest as due to their shy nature I did not want to interrupt their evening with my loud speaker, however all the visitors appreciated this and loved seeing them for the ten minutes or so that we were down there. The visitors also learnt about the history of our previous African Leopard breeding programme that sadly ended in March as our second generation bred Linton leopard Lisa died of old age at the age of 20.

The next stop allowed our visitors to see our two Siberian tigers Katinka and Mirko. This also included a bit of a surprise for all of them, as they were fed just as we got there, this was not planned originally as we did not know how reliable Katinka would be in being able to feed, however it worked perfectly and visitors were able to see her feed up at the fence, something very unique as this is always done after zoo opening hours.

Visitors also learnt the importance of conservation when we are suffering huge illegal trading problems with the rest of our wild cat species. The tiger skin above is an illegal custom seizure now used by myself and the other keepers at Linton Zoo as an education material, allowing the public to appreciate what a tiger feels like as well as being able to see how sad this is. I think people really have a reality check when they see this in my hands, it was very sadly once part of a real tiger who was killed for one reason only, and that reason is profit, it is incredibly sad, but I think it really hits home to members of the public of the huge cruelty that we cause, for no real reason at all.

Interestingly enough because of the huge demand of tiger bone in Chinese medicine, because there are a huge lack of wild tigers in the wild, the last count is 3,200, they are finding other ways to find this source. Because when you strip lions and tigers to the flesh and bone they are exactly the same, they only seperated from the same ancestor incredibly recently, lion and tiger bones are no different at all, even an expert would struggle to tell the difference. So lions are being shot in Africa, and their bones are then taken back to China to be used in Chinese bone medicine. So unfortunately lions are suffering from their big cousins.

The evening then ended with our raffle which we managed to raise £74 from. Something that we were very proud of. Here visitors have a last chance to buy any raffle tickets, as you can see we had a fantastic turn out of about 40 or so visitors.

Below one of our regular visitors and loved friends Sean Robinson helps us choose the winning raffle ticket for our first prize. The winner of this was able to help feed the lions and place their meat into the lion enclosure, whilst they were shut in of course! It turns out however that the winner of this raffle was actually my mum pictured in the Linton Zoo photo below! I do assure you that it was not a fix, because if I had fixed it I would have made sure that she hadn't have won it! Other prizes included a beautiful framed sketch drawing of our lions Zuri and Safina, a huge cuddly leopard, a box of chocolates, and a bottle of Cava! All of these prizes were greatly received by their winners and we are all so grateful by the amount of money that we raised from the raffle all of which goes straight to our sponsored Lion Guardian.

Face painting even took place, and as you can see below, members of staff, the old (sorry Sean!) and the young all took part! All money raised from this went towards Lion Guardians.

Ofcourse the big pull for the event was the unique lion feeding, pictures of which you can see below. Zuri and Safi were great show offs, Zuri as always loves his food, and was seen bounding around the smaller area before he was let out into the main enclosure, you really could grasp how strong he was, absolutely amazing.

Safina on the other hand kept her cool, even as if to say "No, I will not make myself look silly!" She started eating her meat outdoors but quickly resorted back to her platform in the separate unit and ate her dinner there. The public really did enjoy seeing this unique occurrence.

Lion Guardians is a very important charity in my eyes. We started fund raising for the charity in April this year and we are already doing superbly well. World Lion Day did seem like the fantastic opportunity to try and help them out even further, not just be my normal talk in the zoo during the day, but by planning a special evening event too.

"Our mission is to promote sustainable coexistence between people and lion using cultural values, community participation and science."

"The Lion Guardians program was developed in 2006 by the living with lions project and the local communities, and was initiated in collaboration with Maasailand Preservation Trust in January 2007 on Mbirikani Group Ranch in the Amboseli Ecosystem

The Lion Guardians approach involves recruiting young non-literate Maasai warriors to become actively engaged in protecting lions rather than killing them. Enrollment in the Lion Guardians program becomes a life-changing experience for these young Maasai who have had no formal education. Taught to read, write and communicate in Swahili and trained in wildlife management and conflict mitigation techniques, the Lion Guardians monitor lion movements, warn pastoralists when lions are in the area, recover lost livestock, reinforce protective fencing and intervene to stop lion hunting parties. Collectively these efforts lead to a reduction in the loss of livestock, which in turn enhances the livelihoods of the local people and builds tolerance for lions and other carnivores. Most notably, these conflict mitigation efforts are founded on century-old traditional techniques and thus are easily understood and accepted by the community."

The description above taken from the lion guardians website shows the aim of the charity. At Linton Zoo we are currently sponsoring one of these Lion Guardians his name is "Mingati Makarot". Mingati is a past lion killer but he is now fighting to save them as a Lion Guardian. The great news is that after Saturday's Lion Evening we have no raised nearly enough money to sponsor out second Lion Guardian! Please look on the Lion Guardians website here for more information. It is a fantastic project and a very unique one too. Also if you want to know what other conservation projects we raise money for at Linton Zoo please look in this page here.

I just want to say here, a huge thank-you to everyone who has donated any money towards the Lion Guardians project since I started the money raising in the Easter Holidays. It really is greatly appreciated and you really are helping to make a real difference.

Also a huge thankyou to everyone who turned up to the Lion Evening, it was fantastic to have so many people there and it really was a pleasure to talk to you all. I really hoped you enjoyed my hour long talk and the big cat feedings at the end, you really were very lucky because as I have said this is something we generally only do once the zoo has closed.

Thank-you once again.

 And one last thank-you to my wonderful team, consisting of all of the keeping and coffee shop staff at Linton Zoo all pictured below with myself. I really could not have done it all without you.

A big thank-you to Jack, Mikey, Sophie, Nancy, Steve, Aisling, Dawny, Dawn, Jess and of course Zoo Director Kim Simmons.

We may only be small at Linton, but we really are fighting to make a difference in helping the animals we love survive in the wild.

In my eyes, this is true conservation, and we are all  very proud to be a part of it.