Baby lions: where I need to be.

February 26, 2014 • 1:05 pm

Regulars here will know that foremost on my personal bucket list is the experience of petting a baby lion or tiger. It’s been hard to find such opportunities. However, one reader sent the video below showing how, by volunteering in an animal conservation center in South Africa, you can have the Baby Felid Experience. Don’t think I’m not considering such a thing—after I retire. (I’m also told you can volunteer to feed the kakpos [flightless parrots] on the New Zealand island where they’ve been sequestered to protect them from introduced predators.)

This page shows you lots of volunteer experiences available in southern Africa, ranging from lions to penguins to Homo sapiens.

Speaking of cats, we’ll announce the winner of our Cat Confession Contest in the middle of next week (it’s a hard decision!)

32 thoughts on “Baby lions: where I need to be.”

  1. What is a New World monkey doing in Africa? About one minute and four seconds into the video, a capuchin monkey can briefly be seen apparently playing with a shoe.

      1. No, that’s a capuchin – well, it certainly isn’t a vervet, which, as you say, are all through east and southern Africa

  2. If you even dare think of not continuing this Web site after you retire and go to Africa to care for baby lions, I’ll have Baihu have a word with said lions to make sure they eat you alive.

    b&

    1. Ha ha! I want to pile on to the intimidation to keep the site going but I can’t think of a better “threat”. 🙂

      1. I’m new to the site so if intimidation is needed I too can’t think of a better ‘threat’. 😉

  3. What a wonderful experience that would be! The white lion cub is as woolly as a lamb.

    (Here’s hoping Jerry will have a camera with a self-cleaning sensor by then :-))

  4. I wouldn’t dare go near a Kakapo after I saw what one of them did to that poor guy in ‘Last Chance To See’. 😀

    1. I love Kakapos. There was a recent nature/evolution series on TV called Life Force, and the kakapos were one of the NZ critters featured on one episode.

      Of course, handle with care. 🙂

      2. I love Kakapos too and I also like Keas because they sound like the are saying “kea hahahahaha” to me – like they say their name then laugh about it.

  5. We went and did something similar; walked with adolescent lions at a rehabilitation center. This included holding them by the tail while they walked, as well as petting them when they lay down. It was pretty awesome, and something to definitely do if you are planning to go to southern Africa (not just SA the country).

    We were not actively looking for cubs and we were very happy with our experience, but if you are specifically looking for cubs I would suggest you call the location a couple of weeks or months before you go (i.e., before you buy your plane tickets). Not all rehabilitation centers have lions of all ages, and the age of the lions you get to visit with may be somewhat out of their control; it’s basically whatever they are currently fostering. So if you want cubs, make sure there’s a place you can visit that is currently fostering cubs.

    Some of the instructions we had to follow were surreal. Pick up a switch (a branch less than a cm wide, something you could easily snap in your hands) – that’s in case the lion gets “cheeky.” Uh huh.

  6. Beware of adverse incentives of volunteer programs. These programs are really “holiday on the farm” type vacations. One thing the third world does not lack, is cheap, unskilled labor. So any unskilled volunteer positions fall into this category. Now there is nothing wrong with that, but we should be aware of this and consider adverse consequences.

    Some southeast asian orphanages have paid parents to give up their babies in order to have enough orphans for all of the western volunteers to care for.

    If some people do this to children to make a buck, they are certainly not beyond taking lion babies from their packs.

  7. There is a place in Thailand where you can pet tigers.
    It is run by monks but I have read that the tigers are not looked after very well.
    It is near the town of Kananchanaburi which is where the bridge on the Kwai river is.
    The funny thing about the bridge is that it was not built over the Kwai river as per the book and the movie. The French author had been a POW in Burma and knew of of worked on the railway and he assumed that it would have to cross the Kwai river.
    After the war, tourists started to turn up and ask where the Kwai river bridge was only to be told there wasn’t one. So what did the Thais do? They renamed the river so now there are two Kwai rivers (big and small).
    I have been to the town and walked across the bridge. The area is probably the hottest in Thailand. I took the train back to Bangkok with the train being 2 hours late. It then took 4 hours for it to travel 100km but it was a lovely trip with. The train went clickety clack and there was wonderful scenery the whole way.

  8. The Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo at Gulf Shores often has Tiger cubs available for brief encounters. The ones that my brother and his family got to play with were born to a trained tigress in the Florida panhandle and removed from the mother soon after birth for human socialization at the zoo. While I don’t approve of their taking them from Mom, the experience was magical for my niece.

  9. Dear Jerry et al

    I hate to buzzkill but the great majority of these places have very little to do with conservation, and in fact, many of them are pretty seedy. I wrote about this on Panthera’s website (we are an organisation dedicated to the conservation of wild cats), with links to peer-reviewed literature.

    Please see the following:

    http://www.panthera.org/node/485

    http://www.panthera.org/node/3389

    http://www.panthera.org/sites/default/files/HUNTER-2012-WalkingWithLions-ORYX.PDF

    Cheers
    Luke Hunter

    ===============
    Luke Hunter PhD
    President
    PANTHERA
    8 West 40th Street, 18th Fl
    NY, NY 10018
    lhunter@panthera.org
    Tel. 1-646-786-0404, Fax. 1-646-786-0401
    http://www.panthera.org

  11. As Dr Hunter says, be careful where you go, but still please go – Southern Africa rocks. Not just SA, but Lesotho (mountains!), Swaziland (horse riding!), Mozambique (beaches! and noms!), Namibia (deserts!), Botswana (deserts AND swamps!), Zim (Mana Pools! Vic Falls!) All of these places have something different to offer, and they welcome tourists. Thank you, that’s the end of my promotion for Southern African tourism for now 🙂

    2. Southern Africa rocks

      Don’t forget to find a diamond, if you are in ZA.
      Actually, it’s vanishingly unlikely that you’d find a diamond, unless it were planted. But there’s fascinating rocks in the spoil heaps at any diamond mine. If you find rocks fascinating. Which you probably don’t. Average rocks – as in the ones that make up 80+% of the planet, but rarely get within a hundred kilometres of the surface.
      Just be wary of rocks exploding from the pressure relief.

  12. I can’t believe no one has set Jerry up with a lion cub to pest with the vast readership of this site!

  14. Jerry — you have to go. It’s the most natural next step for you. Just know you’ll have to chronicle your adventures with wondrous stories and stunning (and hilarious), photos and videos.

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