THE LION WHISPERER

EVEN A BIG, FIERCE LION NEEDS A FRIEND

My little ursine friend's mutters from the cupboard are becoming a problem - I guess we're both missing the bush - so I'm letting him out to share another wildlife tale (this one took place at Ka'Ingo Private Game Reserve in South Africa). Over to Erich:

"Hoo-wee, I had to stop my knees from knocking in this picture (well, I don't really have knees...), but then, they did say he was asleep! This lion needed his radio collar's battery changed, so a really good marksman shot him with an anaesthetic dart, and as he lay down, a ranger rushed up to change the battery while a vet and vet nurse attended to his scrapes - he'd been scrapping with another lion because they both fancied the same lioness. 

But take a look at his poor nose! Makes my skin creep to think how sore it must be - the whole front of his nose is hanging off, and there's raw red flesh under it. He had been transported in a cage six months earlier, and in his desperation to break free, he'd cut the end of his nose against the bars. The vet had stitched it up and they'd kept him sedated for a couple of days until it looked okay, then they released him. But it itched like mad, so he rubbed it, and the rubbing tore the stitches out. But this time the vet said he was going to leave it because the poor old chap was managing to hunt and lead a normal life. I dunno. Looks pretty awful to me. (By the way, he had baaaad breath...)

I thought he looked lonely and scared, so I held his hand for a while. I don't think many bears and lions have held hands? I wonder if he tells his kids that once, while he was waking up, he saw a small fluffy animal that he didn't recognise, and that wasn't food...