I've been watching a programme called Lion Man recently. It's about a bloke called Craig Busch who has opened a big cat sanctuary in New Zealand. He has amazing relationships with his cats, who obviously love him and miss him when he's away.
He's particularly interested in breeding white lions and white Royal Bengal tigers, and four white lion cubs are being raised with three white tiger cubs. Here is a bit of film taken when he and one of his regular builders were doing improvements to an enclosure.
By the way, at the zoo on Monday I heard, not for the first time, someone talking about white tigers as being Siberian tigers. I suppose they think of snowy Siberia and snow and make an assumption. But at least that's better than the woman who, looking at a serval, said, "I think that's a meerkat"!
Oh here's the comment box! It didn't show up the first time I came here. lol
ReplyDeleteI've been fascinated with the white lion thing since I saw the Japanese cartoon "Kimba the White Lion" when I was a little kid. Disney stole the entire premise and turned it into "The Lion King."
That was so much fun to watch..as well as being beautiful :-)
ReplyDeleteThose cubs area all too adorable!
ReplyDeleteI want those cubs!
ReplyDeleteLOL The woman who thought they were meerkats needs glasses!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing that. They're beautiful!
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ReplyDeleteseen the program and yes its very good.
ReplyDeleteIt will be real amazing when he gets mauled or eaten by one. Twice here in the US wild cats have mauled and /killed handlers and one teen was killed by a 'tame' tiger that school trips would make to have the kids pictures taken with the Tiger.
ReplyDeleteThen there is Siegfried and Roy. enough said. My soapbox, wild animal belong in the wild or wild preserves.
Speaking as one who has taken care of and lost patients who have been mauls by wild pets.
basric, wild animals belong in the wild, that's true. on the other hand, without zoos, some species would have been extincted already. imo zoos are very important to save threatened species.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a problem with zoos, I have a problem with handlers treating wild animals like you can erase thousands of years of instincts by being "human" to them.
ReplyDeletei agree with you, basric.
ReplyDeleteMe too. One of the things I don't like about Craig Busch is that he will take cubs away from competent mothers so he can hand-raise them and make them easier to handle.
ReplyDeleteYes, it means he can raise funds by letting people meet them, or taking them to festivals and suchlike. It also means its easier for vet care. But to reintroduce animals to the wild they need to know how to raise their own young, and staying with mum would help with that.
On the other hand, if we keep hunting them, destroying their habitat and exploiting them for things like Chinese medicine, zoos may be the only place they are safely able to exist.
That was so much fun to watch..as well as being beautiful
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Vince
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