This is a real, touching story. The video comes from youtube and has been viewed for nealy six million times. The lion, named Christian, was adopted by two young men living in Britain and then released back to the reserve area in Kenya. This video documented their reunification, also their final goodbye after several years in 1974.
On YouTube, there's more information:
"Many thanks to The Sunday Times (27-07-08) & TimesOnline
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news...
for covering the story and for linking to my video.
To see the whole amazing story, buy the full dvd at http://www.bornfree.org.uk/shop/acata... and help The Born Free Foundation save more wildlife.
There's also more info at Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christia...
Christian left the Kora Reserve in 1973. He made his new territory along the Tana river, but when the Wakamba herdsmen kept bringing their livestock to his hunting ground, he moved on. George Adamson said in his autobiography, "I used to count the days on which we hadn't seen Christian, but when they reached 97, I gave up recording them in my diary." Because a lion can live from 12 to 15 years in the wild, Adamson believed that Christian ended his days in the Meru National Reserve only a few miles up river.
As for the two guys, the Born Free Foundation tells me that Anthony "Ace" Bourke (referred to as Ace "Berg" on YouTube) lives in Australia as a lecturer and expert in the area of Aboriginal Art, and John Rendall lives in the UK and is a Trustee of the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust.
Anyone wishing to donate to the George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust can do so by contacting one of the following....
George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust
16a Park View Road
London
N3 2JB
UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 8343 4246
Fax: +44 (0)20 8343 4048
info@georgeadamson.org
The Tony Fitzjohn/George Adamson
African Wildlife Preservation Trust
Georgianna Pennington Regnier
116 La Patera Drive
Camarillo
CA 93010
USA
+1 805 987 0997 "
As the video says, love knows no limits and true friendships last a lifetime.
I just watched as well as read this story by all the links in this post with deeply touching....
If a lion can recognize its past feeders and then show its joy like this, why not we people get along in current world?
Yeah, that's really what I thought.
By the way, why can't I just embed the video like AW did in his posts?
Really a long story, fantastic.