Lions in Camps (Is Rehabilitation Possible)

[Roaming Africa]

Please could someone provide comment on the following if at all possible? These questions may have been dealt with before but I would like to find out a bit more info.

In the scenario of canned lions or having been bred in a captive situation is it possible for these lions to be reintroduced into a natural environment. Will they revert to a natural state or will they be completely reliant on man for their continued survival. Further will they provide problems in terms of hunting domestic livestock, as this is an easy prey item rather than the existing plains game?

 

[Shallom]

There are many factors to the re-introduction of lions into the wild... at what stage of their development, what type of habitat, proximity to human activity etc. But it is possible to re-introduce a lion into the wild! It is hard work though and does not always succeed. Very time and fund consuming too. Depends also on how the wild lions will react to the intruder... a lot to consider.

 

[Roaming Africa]

Hi Shallom

Thank you for the information I have received some information on lions for sale and pictures included. Upon inspection I noticed they were in fenced areas and that the farmer was looking to sell them therefore the questions. I was wondering what would happen to these animals as they probably dont fall under an ethical hunt siuation. One wonders how benefit will be achieved from possibly trying to save the stock so that others can benefit from a truly fair african hunt in the future especially the younger generation.

 

[owenowen]

Hi,

Most probably those lions will be kept in a fenced area of 1000 hectares for 3 months before the hunter arrives. During this time they would have been fed with dead donkeys or something. Im not up to date with the laws regarding this as im not into these hunts but i think this was or was close to the SA law in shooting lions in fenced areas. Please correct me if im wrong.

 

[Skyline]

I am not totally up on this but I recall reading that the proposed new RSA rules would require lions to be on the property they are going to be hunted on for two years, but I could be off base on this. On the other hand I had an operator who got my contact info off of this site, send me some lion hunting info just a couple of weeks ago that said they guaranteed that the lions on their high fenced farm would be released a minimum of 3 days to two weeks prior to the hunt taking place and you tracking it down and killing it. That is long ways off 3 months of living there eating donkeys.

I am going to leave this topic alone now because if I said what I would really like to say Jerome would be forced to kick me off of the forum and it would result in another bunch of live and let live, we are all hunters posts.

 

[owenowen]

Hi,

Most probably those lions will be kept in a fenced area of 1000 hectares for 3 months before the hunter arrives. During this time they would have been fed with dead donkeys or something. Im not up to date with the laws regarding this as im not into these hunts but i think this was or was close to the SA law in shooting lions in fenced areas. Please correct me if im wrong.

I take my words back i think the 3 months in 1000 hectares was wrong , i think it is supposed to be 2 years.

 

[Shallom]

Roaming Africa,
i think i get where you are coming from and have also considered such a project. In my research and feasibility efforts, there are two aspects that made me stop the pursuit; land & funds. Introducing them into the wild (of which we have a lot in Tanzania) is not very feasible due to the extensive range and wide distribution of wild lions. The first instinct among wild lions is to attack intruders and the tame ones would not fare well in such a confrontation. Secondly, integrating tame lions into a wild lion population would require a lifetime of implementation, if at all possible(where males are concerned). New females are easier to naturalize. So anyway, the idea and project are possible, but you need a big piece of land with as natural a habitat as possible (prey species & vegetation/cover/terrain) and lots of funding to manage the project because it requires serious involvement and monitoring, especially in the early stages. In South Africa, it would be more feasible due to the game farming policy already being in place, suggesting an addition of predators in an already thriving habitat. But in places like Tanzania, where wildlife refuges and sanctuaries are truly wild, unfenced and natural, there are risks involved and basically, it is unnecessary because we have the largest population of wild lions in the world. There are a few places where cattle encroachment and extensive human activity have decimated the indigenous lion populations and I was looking into the possibility of a quicker fix than letting the lions re-introduce themselves over a period of time...

 

[Roaming Africa]

Thank you all for the replies.
I think I have been given some excellent feedback and will consider all the comments carefully.