Sunday, July 20, 2008

Christian the Lion

Before i continue posting my trip to Langkawi. I would like to share this very touching video with you all:


Christian was separated from his parents at an early age and put up for sale in a London department store. Christian's parents were zoo lions, the father came from the Rotterdam zoo and the mother from Jerusalem, and they lived at the Ilfracombe zoo. When they had cubs, the zoo sold them, and two cubs went to the department store.

Two men, Anthony Bourke and John Rendall, found him there and immediately fell in love with him and determined to buy him. They scraped together the money and brought the little lion home when he was only a few weeks old. They named him Christian.

Tony and John dedicated themselves to giving Christian the best life they could, and the bond that developed between them is a joy to behold. Christian was a remarkable lion, obviously very intelligent and loving, and gentle to everyone, both human and animal.

As he grew, Christian began to need bigger facilities than Tony and John could provide. Thanks to a chance meeting with Bill Travers (who had starred in the movie Born Free), they hit upon the idea of sending Christian to Africa to live as a wild lion.

Bill Travers contacted George Adamson to set up the project, and came up with the idea of making a documentary movie of it all, to fund the project. Christian is an absolute joy to watch in this movie. The love he shows, his intelligence, his joie de vie, are beautiful. All the color pictures here are from the movie.

George Adamson, of course, was himself a bridge between the worlds of humans and animals.

The first step when Christian arrived at George's compound, was to introduce him to Boy, a lion who had been in the movie Born Free and who George had already sent "back" to the wild, without losing his relationship with him.

Christian and Boy eventually became best friends, and within a year Christian was living as a wild lion.

When that year had passed, Tony and John came to Africa to see Christian. After a year of struggle, tragedies, and life with a pride of lions in the wild, the relationship Christian felt with Tony and John was as strong as it had always been. In fact, Christian's wonderful relationship with Tony and John caused the other lions in the pride to accept and be at peace with them as well.

A bridge existed, and it withstood the separation and the learning of a new way to live. Christian was another lion of two worlds.

2 craps:

Constance Chan said...

langkawi post ka meh tampok...lol

Joze Foo said...

aiyoh...hoon...maybe tomolo la... but i didn't take much picture le.. If you want, you can visit multiply for the pictures first.. then read the grandmother story later...lol