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My final dose of being with lions and I spent a day with the volunteers, guides and handlers, and staff at the ALERT project based in Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, next to flowing waters of the Zambezi River which run to Victorua Falls. A stunning location and housing up to 15 volunteers compared to Antelope Parks 50 odd.
Starting with a morning client walk with 17 month cubs - Munali, Madoda, and Zambezi. I was fascinated with Madoda being the only male cub I've walked with - such a beautiful boy with his mohawk styled mane beginning to grow. Madoda lapped up all the attention while the girls, Munali and Zambezi played and did their own thing away from the crowd.
We walked to the waters edge where the trio relaxed and then the girls played - stalking and jumping on each other.
To get the complete overview of the project I joined the team to the breeding program and Dawamba pride - their stage 2 release site with a pride of 7. Also at the breeding program they have Hero, a true wild lion who was rescued from Hwange (Zimbabwe) as he had been ousted by his pride and was surviving by starting to eat farmers cattle which was not going down well with the farmers who wanted to kill him. ALERT stepped in and saved him and are now trying to coordinate with both Zambia and Zimbabwe governments to facilitate Hero's return into the wild but 5 months later they are still trying.
As we reversed the ute up to the fence, Cara the project volunteer coordinator advised that Hero would charge at us as we threw over his donkey dinner and yep, sure enough he did! Clenching his dinner off he ran to the covers of the trees. Fingers crossed the governments coordinate soon so he can be returned to the wild as soon as possible where he belongs.
Not a great day to be a donkey! As one was freshly killed by one of the handlers , nothing like a nail gun straight to the head. They spared us actually seeing it be killed, as we were feeding Hero and Rwanda, but minutes later we were on hand to help hack, weigh and put on the back of the ute... Still warm and some fleshy parts still twitching... And I thought my meat prep days were over for this trip! Love it!
Really my last lion walk (for this trip at least) with Zaria and Zamfara, I think 16 month old cubs.
Everyone was so welcoming and a fantastic opportunity to see the project. After seeing all 3, I think I would still return to Antelope Park.
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