Lion Handling 101

Today I had my first sunrise lion pride walk. Watching the sunrise over the African Bush was spectacular. The lions are quite talkative in the mornings. As we approach their enclose they begin to make what sounds like a combination of a continuous, subtle roar and a moan. You can’t help but want to try and mimic the sound back. They are happy to see the arrival of their human pride and begin rubbing up against the cage practically begging for our hands to touch them. We do. Once the gate is open, they cheerful come out to explore. The morning session began with the older cubs, 19 months.

I find that the older cubs are more disciplined. They listen are more attentive to the handlers commands. The younger cubs… not so much. The older cubs have developed their personalities where as the younger ones are still experimenting.

After my morning with the older cubs, I went on a pride walk with Swahili, Sango and Sahara… the three nine month old cubs. They were in a very silly mood as you can see by the photos. After they settled down a bit, Sango allowed me to pick some bush ticks off his fuzzy body. Bush ticks grow to four times the size of our American ticks… nasty.

I have all my arms and legs so I guess I past lion handling 101!