Six lions will be released into the wild near in South Africa’s Western Cape province within the next two months, 150 years after a hunter shot the last free lion in the region.
Searl Derman, the owner of the reserve into which the big cats will be released, about 150 kilometres north-east of Cape Town — said the cats are the closest relative to the extinct ”black mane” Cape lion.
”A hunter shot the last Cape lion in the 1850s,” Derman said. ”Since then lions have only be found in the north of South Africa,” he said.
Three of the lions are four-week-old cubs and two are one year old. The older lions are being kept in a one hectare (2,5 acre) area to acclimatise it to the surroundings.
”The lions will be released into a predator reserve, where they will be able to roam freely and enjoy their own mountains, valleys, seasonal rivers and kloofs (ravines),” Derman said.
”The three cubs will be released as soon as they are off the bottle and strong enough to care and defend themselves against the two bigger lions.”
Derman said the lions would help the reserve establish a rehabilitation centre for the rare and endangered Cape Vulture.
”From the carcasses left by the lions, it puts us in the ideal situation to make a conservation effort to establish a rehabilitation centre for the Cape Vulture, which has suffered over the last few decades,” Derman said. – Sapa-AFP