18 March, 2009

Christian the Lion


And here's the full story. It's over an hour long in 10 minute increments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzxms9-qQZ4&feature=related
Well -- so much for that.
The owners of Born Free who own this video, as well, threatened to sue the person who posted this to Youtube. You can view the 1st and last segments and, if you like them, a link is provided where you can order a copy of the whole program. **sigh**
xxx
sequel:
the story began in 1969 and, I think, the last any human saw of Christian was in 1974.

One of the more astounding parts of the story was this:
John and Ace phoned George in 1974 and told him they wanted to come for another visit. [2 years after the video above]. George told them that it had been quite a while since he'd seen the pride and doubted they would be able to find them.
They decided to go anyway--at least to see George.

When they got to the camp, George told them that the pride had returned the day before and they were just outside the camp.
Christian and the men had another lovely visit. The lionesses were not happy about it and let it be known but Christian stayed with the men for a couple of days.

After John and Ace left, the pride left the camp and they were never seen again. George kept hoping they would return but they never did.

George believed [and I do, too] that Christian knew John and Ace were coming and came to meet them.
After that visit, they never planned another trip to Africa so there was no need for Christian to return to the camp to greet them as he was fully assimilated to Africa by then.