After a more than 12,000km journey on a high priority pro bono flight, a pair of lion brothers finally felt the African sun on their backs for the first time as they started their new lives in their ancestral homeland, the Eastern Cape.
Tsar and Jamil arrived at the Shamwari Private Game Reserve at the weekend after a monumental effort by international wildlife charity Born Free and other role players to rescue the three-year-olds from a life of mistreatment, starvation and war.
Born Free’s head of rescue and care, Maggie Balaskas, said that after almost a year of meticulous planning, the lions began their epic rehoming journey on Friday.
“After a traumatic start in life, and having already lived in five different homes, it’s a huge relief to know that Tsar and Jamil have arrived safely at their forever home,” Balaskas said.
Born into captivity in a Ukrainian zoo, Tsar and Jamil were taken from their mother as tiny cubs and sold to a farm and exploited as a tourist attraction.
Fortunately, they were moved to a rescue centre in Kyiv less than a year later where, with proper care, the lions recovered from their calcium deficiencies and Tsar’s bone fractures.
In early 2022, a team at the Ukrainian rescue centre worked alongside a Polish zoo and Natuurhulpcentrum (NHC) to evacuate the big cats, via a brief stay in Poland, to the safety of the NHC’s wildlife rescue centre in Belgium.
After being loaded into their custom-made travel crates, they travelled by road to the Luxembourg airport, before departing for Johannesburg on a free specialist flight provided by air transport partner Cargolux.
Ten hours later, they landed in Johannesburg before travelling more than 1,000km to Born Free’s Big Cat Sanctuary at Shamwari.
There they dashed out of their boxes into the natural bush of their 2.5 acre enclosure to become the 58th and 59th lions to be rehomed since the charity was founded in 1984.
“In our 40th year of fighting for wild animals, I’m delighted Born Free has been able to provide the last piece of the puzzle by giving Tsar and Jamil safety and sanctuary at our Big Cat Sanctuary at Shamwari,” Balaskas said.
“An achievement only made possible with the help of our dedicated supporters and wonderful corporate partners.”
The Born Free manager at the Shamwari Private Game Reserve, Catherine Gillson, said they were looking forward to providing the lions with the care and respect they deserved.
“They have been shifted to safety so many times in their young lives that we hope the final stage of their journey ‘back to Africa’ will bring them peace and a chance to enjoy a more natural life — a million miles away from the existence they endured in their formative years.”
HeraldLIVE
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