If you love cats, the idea of holding a wee lion cub sounds pretty appealing. Don’t do it, though.Lion petting is a tourist activity you’ll find in many of Africa’s so-called Lion Parks, according to World Animal Protection (WAP). Lion cub petting is emerging as a serious problem.Maybe you think you are helping the wild cats by taking pictures with them. But you’re not. Actually you are reinforcing the poor treatment of lions by petting lion babies — and in all sorts of ways.Now that the Cecil tragedy has put lion treatment under the magnifying glass, Africa wildlife advocates want to underline the importance of lion care.Resisting the urge to pet lions is one thing you should avoid, advocates say, when visiting Africa.
Please don’t pet the lions
In its recently released lion report, WAP estimates there are 5,800 captive-bred lions in 150 commercial facilities just in South Africa alone.Those cubs you snap a picture with were likely taken away from their mother long before they were weaned. In the wild, a cub is normally weaned at 8 months. But in commercial breeding facilities — where you can snap a photo with Simba — they are often separated from their mothers at only a month old. One month.
Separation from mom is just the beginning. That cub in your picture won’t be a cub for long, you know. It will grow into a full lion — no longer a petting attraction or photo prop. WAP says that many adult lions wind up hunted or euthanized once they no longer provide tourism entertainment.Think twice before you smile and tickle the little lion cub. Here’s a WAP video that explains in full:
Just say no to lion parks
Unlike responsible conservation centers that breed lions to preserve and help the species, lion parks are in the business of creating lion entertainment for tourists. Popular tourist sites like TripAdvisor sometimes fall prey to such commercial come-ons.Lion Park in Johannesburg received TripAdvisor’s 2015 Certificate of Excellence. The Park has a full page on lion cub handling and the controversy surrounding the practice. But the park still does it, saying:
“It should be noted … that the vast majority of visitors to the Lion Park do not feel that the cubs display signs of irritation or unhappiness when being touched.”
The baby lion’s feelings aside, WAP believes this practice sets up a negative, entertainment-based life for wild creatures that should be helped, not exploited.Cannedlion.org details how cub petting hurts lions and how we can help encourage South Africa to shut down the lion industry. Often lions are bred for commercial purposes and later get “canned” — a method of hunting where the animal is hunted within a captive environment.Travelers and tourism can help out lions if tourist dollars are spent at wildlife reserves or sanctuaries.
“Lion Park” in the name doesn’t always mean the park is commercial, either, sometimes sanctuaries include the term in their names. So do your research. The Drakenstein Lion Park near Cape Town is a sanctuary for captive-bred lions, and it details why tourists should not visit places where they can “play with cubs.”
In its lion report, WAP encourages tourists to patronize South Africa’s network of 400 national parks and similar protected areas where wild lions can be viewed in their native habitat.One of the best known parks is Kruger National Park (pictured left), which is home to Africa’s Big Five: elephants, lions, leopards, black or white rhinos and Cape buffalo. Karoo National Park is another to visit — it’s on my list because lions were reintroduced there in 2010, after an absence of 170 years.
The message is clear.
When you visit Africa, see lions in the wild, not in a zoo-based entertainment environment. Unlike conservation-minded facilities like, say, the San Diego Zoo, commercial lion parks are focused on tourist dollars, not the welfare of lions. Avoid them.
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