"One of the things that we enjoy here in South Africa is visiting animal parks. Most of the animals are out in their natural habitat, but in designated areas that have fences around them. The big cats are kept separate from the other animals for obvious reasons.The lions and cheetah's are fed fresh meat usually from carcasses of antelope and other animals. The Lion Park (the second one we have visited) is about 30 km. from Johannesburg. Most of the animals there are lions, but there are giraffes, ostrich's, several kinds of antelope, and a few other animals.
The lions are kept in three areas. The cubs under about 6 months old are kept in one area. The public are allowed in this area to pet them and touch them under close supervision. At this young age, the cubs are a little playful, but apparently won't bite or scratch. I was petting one that was asleep (see photo) and secretly hoped that he wouldn't suddenly wake up and inflict some injury on me. Then there is an enclosed area for the older (teen age) young lions. Some of the employees of the Lion Park would go in and "play" with them. These older lions were more "playful" and would gently and sometimes not so gently bite and wrestle with the employees. We kept our distance on the outside of the fence. Then their was the large area for the adult lions. We toured this area on a bus with bars in the windows for our safety. As you can see in the photos, the lions were just sleeping and hanging out. Our guide told us that the lions were fed every 2 days or so, and on this particular day, they seemed to be well fed. It was very interesting watching them in their natural habitat.
It is sometimes said that these animal parks are not much more than giant zoos. I don't know if that is true or not, but this park seemed to have lots of space for all the animals thet were in it. I don't know what the size of this park, but it appeared to be hundreds of acres.
We were excited to be there and to see these magnificent animals".
Comments