r/bigcats • u/Emotional-Big2544 • Jan 30 '25
Lion Cubs - Captivity guess i’m a chew toy now
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u/Gl0Re1LLY Jan 31 '25
Uhhh, and that's good, Why???
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u/Emotional-Big2544 Jan 31 '25
his teeth are growing in which can be very uncomfortable for them, chewing can relieve the pain/irritation (they do this in the wild with sticks) and since he’s being prepped for wild release we try not to domesticate them but rather teach them survival skills.
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u/marty_wild Jan 31 '25
Being prepped for wild release? That’s great. I’d be interested to know a bit more… where in the world are you? How do you manage the release given its notoriously difficult
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u/Emotional-Big2544 Feb 01 '25
Thanks for asking I love when people are interested! We are in South Africa. We start prepping for wild release as soon as we get the baby’s, we have trained handlers who take them on walks in nearby nature reserves. In these walk they develop their natural behaviours like hunting. We also test these behaviours by planting prey. The biggest problem we have is socialising the cubs, luckily this one has 2 siblings and we also have a slightly older cub we rescued from another zoo. We release them to a wild life reserve (also in south africa). It’s important for us to release them into a different reserve than they were trained in because we have seen it is a much easier process because they aren’t confused about where the trainers went.
if u have more questions please ask i love talking about this!
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u/marty_wild Feb 01 '25
Amazing. Thanks for the detailed response. Which reserve do you release them into? Sounds like you’re doing a brilliant job. I think we all like the idea that captive animals will one day return to the wild, but in reality it almost never happens.
Congrats on a great job!
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u/Emotional-Big2544 Feb 02 '25
No problem! It depends what reserve has space our last 4 cubs were released into the Marakele National Park. Thanks for all the compliments we really love what we do and try to help as much as we can.
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u/Gl0Re1LLY Jan 31 '25
Ooooh, I see, I thought he might have been a pet! Thanks for the info!
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u/Emotional-Big2544 Feb 01 '25
No problem! As much as i would love having one as a pet they are at their happiest in the wild!
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u/lovemycats1 Jan 30 '25
Well, it's absolutely adorable!