Wednesday, September 26

An afternoon out - Pride of Yorkshire - Lions rescued by Yorkshire Wildlife Park










10 comments:

  1. I hope that was a zoom lens..

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  2. The lions seemed to be peaceful, Sue. Don't they? Your photos show happy lions. Why were they rescued?

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    1. Just over 8 years ago, Nadezda Yorkshire Wildlife Park was a new venture. It heard of 13 lions being kept in tiny concrete floored cages in a zoo in Romania and a campaign was launched to rehouse the lions back in Yorkshire. At this point they had no large animals but set to work and funded by masses of donations created three, large, landscaped enclosures in which to house the the lions. When the lions arrived they had lots of health problems due to the conditions in which they had been kept. Over the years three of the lions have died. This first rehousing project set the park off on a new direction and it has become part of International breeding programmes for endangered species. Recently it rehoused four brown bears which had been living in small, concrete cages in a zoo in Japan. Sadly one was so ill that it died. The lions and bears at least can live out their days in relative luxury. If you Google Yorkshire Wildlife Park lions there are lots of stories about the rescue.

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  3. A happy story Sue. We are by comparison a kind nation.

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    1. The bears are settling in nicely too, Brian. After being kept in a small concrete cage for so long the first thing that the first one who ventured into the grassed enclosure did was to dig. He'd never dug before but the instinct was strong. He also went into water which was another thing he'd never done. Some detractors say the bears should have been set free in the wild but this would have certainly been a death sentence. I'm not a fan of the old fashioned zoos but whilst we are persecuting animals to the edge of extinction we need places like YWP.

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  4. Wonderful photos. I love the one of the two lionesses where one's yawning. I still haven't been to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park.

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    1. You should visit, Jo. Put it on your list - we have bought a season ticket this year so intend top visit regularly.

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  5. Oooooohhhh....WONDERFUL pictures. So glad these poor creatures were rescued and can now move around, they look so relaxed and healthy. A great rescue!xxx

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    1. They still have some health issues from when they were kept in tiny cages, Dina. One of the lions had to have part of its tail amputated but all in all they seemed content and behaving very lionlike.

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