*I have to apoligise, I became sick yesterday. Hopefully I can do something with this*
This celebration of the animal kingdom’s most beautiful and fearsome creature was founded by Big Cat Rescue, the world’s largest accredited sanctuary dedicated to big cats. World Lion Day is the brainchild of co-founders Dereck and Beverly Joubert, a husband-and-wife team with a passion for big cats. They began the initiative in 2013, bringing together both National Geographic and the Big Cat Initiative under a single banner to protect the remaining big cats living in the wild.
A Pride is actually the group of Lionesses, not the males.
A group of male lions is called a coalition.
The roar of the male lion can be heard from up to 5 miles away. Their roar is the loudest amongst the big cat species.
Mostly lions hunt at night because of the adaptation skills of their eyes over dark. This gives them huge advantage over the prey.
According to reports, over a century ago there were more than 2,00,000 wild lions living in Africa. Recent surveys estimate that in the last two decades, lion numbers have declined from approximately 30,000 to about 20,000.
Jericho the Lion – Jericho was Cecil’s “brother” unlike Cecil, Jericho died from natural cases. Jericho also helped to allow his and Cecil’s cubs long enough to succeed on their own.
A hundred years ago over 200,000 lions roamed Africa and Asia. Today, that number is about 20,000. That’s a 90% reduction in the population. With only around 20,000 in the wild, they’re now officially classified as ‘vulnerable’.
Which also means that you can watch the #safarilive live feed on the television! It only shows on the television within America.
So please watch #safarilive on which premieres Thursday, December 14 at 10/9c. For those who are not in America, you can still watch it on YouTube and via Ustream.
There is one picture that I’ve noticed on a lot of Repbulicans, MAGA type profiles…It’s this one:
I’ve seen it a few times and I think I’ve seen one with a more African setting behind. Now these are Asiatic Lion…They’re bit fluffier, so there are such things of Lions…apart from actual snow leopards…being in the snow. These lions are usually found in India……See how they are just walking towards the cameras, not running, the camera is at ground level…Almost like they are expecting something good…like food to be thrown to them?
Now these above Lions are not canned lions they are actually from a conservation park. I do find it interesting though a lot of Republicans use this particular picture. The Lions are feed and they don’t have to “hunt”…Maybe it is an appropriate picture for them?lol…While I love that the Lions are protected from people like Republicans and Hunters in general, I think it’s an interesting picture they keep using this one. There are so many other pictures out there, they don’t include a group of Lions basically being “kept”.
Canned lions are usually breed in captivity for one of two reasons, to be shot and killed for trophy hunters or just for entertainment…Like circuses. Some of these Lions are eventually rescued.
There is a famous video that shows a massive group of lions:
Sad, isn’t it? The above video is real and it’s of a sanctuary park somewhere in China.
So I’ve been thinking a lot over the weekend and sometimes that 140 characters on Twitter just cannot express how your feeling…Without posting about 20,000 tweets…Which is a little annoying for others…And no chance for editing either!
Over the weekend on the live safari that I watch regularly…(Seriously, check it out). There was a great tragedy that started a huge debate. I thought about what everyone was saying and what I’ve learnt while watching and I just wanted to express how I felt about the situation…That involves more than 140 characters.
The situation involved some of Djuma’s highly endangeredWild Dogs and one of the safari’s more well known Prides the Styx Pride. Usually Wild Dogs are pretty good at getting out of the way of a Lioness/Lion. Wild Dogs have huge ears designed for listening, but unfortunately and by some sad situation, they just didn’t hear the Lioness, and she came out of nowhere to kill one of the younger Wild Dogs. Too lose even one Wild Dog is horrible because they are just so highly endangered. At the same time though I don’t blame or hate the Lioness for killing the Dog, especially with her own cubs being so close by, which if the Dogs are had found, would have torn them apart. The Lioness also does not know that the Dogs are so critically endangered.
It started a huge debate on what type of animal is “better”. The wildlife is not Disney, even in the Lion King, Mufasa doesn’t say anything about NOT eating the antelope. Just all the “Great circle of Life”… stuff … The best thing I have discovered since watching Safari Live was love for all creatures, the herbivores, the predators, even some of the bugs and insects…Have you ever seen a Dung Beetle, did you know how much they can lift?!
Yes I still have my old and tried favourites, but now I just have so many more!
I have a huge amount of respect for Buffalo,
Warthogs make for fierce mothers,
Egyptian Geese duckling are just the cutest,
Jackals are the most nervous creatures I have ever seen and
The hearts of the elephants…Just stunning!
What I’m saying, I hate it when we all fight on the safari live channel, it really unsettles me. People like different animals, and predators having to kill another predator when their own cubs are nearby, it just really is nature. We can’t all like the exact same animals, because, well it just can’t happen…I think we can all agree though, Maggots are just icky.
This post is also a excuse to post this classic video…Enjoy!
Okay so this link is mainly for my American friends (although you can still watch the live safari drives on Ustream/WildEarth … It’s Big Cat Week on American’s Nat Geo channel …The safari drives that I watch are going to be showing on tv today (I think roughly 3 hours from now) So please watch and go have a look! #SafariLive
If you are a regular reader of mine, or even if you are not. I am a little Lion loving obsessed. I love Lions, I’ve got Lions all over my room, I’ve got Lion t-shirts…Lions everywhere! Although funnily, I am not a big cat person. I got upset with the whole Cecil the Lion situation…However, out of this extremely sad situation a few good things have been taking place.
This week the US House of Representative passed an Act called the Global Anti – Poaching Act. There has been a little upset with this as people have been getting it confused with the Cecil Act. These are two completely different Acts and (I believe) that the Cecil Act isn’t even is for voting until January, next year some time.
Either way thought the Global Anit-Poaching Act is an amazing Act (please read more information here H.R. 2494 The Global Anti Poaching Act). From what I can understand the Act means that while they can’t stop the illegal shooting from happening in another country, they can stop the importation of these poaches. So say that a Hunter/Poacher were to spend $750,000 on a hunt, they wouldn’t be able to bring the kill back into the country.
I personally REALLY (like you have no idea) hope this will start to deter people from, especially, illegally poaching.
School was easy for me for years and then Year 6 happened and that was the first year I was ever bullied. This was luckily before cyber bullying was a “thing”, but it was still horrible. I had never had anything horrible to me before and it was a shock to my system.
What is your favorite animal?
Oh my goodness, I have a few favourites. I would have to say that overall my favourite would have to be Lions/Lionesses (you should see my room, I have more Lion things that comic/nerdy things. I have a whole “Pride” all brought from this company Schleich).
After watching the safari drive for months now, I have a few other “favourites”:
Elephants
Leopards
Hyena
Buffalo
Kudu (they are so pretty!)
If you had to have your vision corrected would you rather: glasses or contacts?
Honestly it depends, there are some pretty cool looking glasses and contacts out there. It would depend on my mood,lol. Ultimately if I HAD to choose I would go with the contacts, mainly because everyone I know who has glasses seem to lose them a lot! They can become very expensive after awhile,lol
List: Name at least five television shows (past or present) you enjoyed?
As many…MANY…of you know I am obsessed with the live web feed called Safari Live and there are a whole range of different wild animals that we follow.
Anyways, my favourite animals (on the top there with Elephants and Hyenas) for most of my life has been the Lions/Lionesses. There are several different groups, some of who I may have mentioned before. The Birmingham Boys and the Matimba Males…Don’t mess with the Matimba males!
The Styx female Lionesses, two of them had broken off and one of the Lionesses had given birth to three little cubs. The most nerve wracking for a little cubs time is when they meet Daddy, which is not for a while. The Styx Cubs have finally met their Daddy and not only did he accept them, but someone got all the cutest pictures and I just wanted to share with you all!
Everyone who follows my Blog knows about my obsession with Wild Earth’s Safari Live, which is presented by both Ustream and Nat Geo. Originally the Live Safari (tweet: #SafariLive) was supposed to end of February, but then they made an announcement that they were going to extend it by three months.
Now for the exciting news! They’ve decided to introduce all new guides, so they don’t actually know when they are going to end the drives! Forever Safari’s.
So to “celebrate” I’ve put a little collage together of some of the animals that we get to see and you should all see too!
Bella
This is Bella, we have been watching her grow up. She is such a little cutie. Hyena’s are a matriarchal society and unfortunately she has two younger cubs that she hangs out with that are her “superiors”, but she has such character! We know that the other two cubs one is a girl and one is a boy, because if Hyena have two cubs of the same gender, one has to be killed =/
(The other two…They don’t have a name yet).
Nkuhama lionesses and Matimba Lions (do not mess with those Matimba Lions!)
Lolsys Library 