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@Pikasso

No I don't think any lion knows the Park rules . It is up to tourists to do so. This is one of the reasons why tourists must stay in their cars - to stop predators from associating cars with people- leading to incidents such as you are referring to. George Adamson devoted his life to lions. I could not find reference to the incident you are referring to but if it was the only one I am surprised. You cannot integrate with a pride of lions and then not expect things like that to happen. When ever you read about an incident like that you can know there is a story behind the story - where people overstepped.

Here's an interesting story: Border hoppers from Zimbabwe/Mozambique often cross into South Africa via Kruger Park. They learnt to scare off lions by making noise - banging pots/pans etc. together to chase them off. Lions got used to this noise making thing and guess what - to one pride it became dinner bells. Instead of scaring them off, it lured them into action. This clearly demonstrates that lions can and will adapt to human behavior and that is why Park rules are there - to separate tourists from animal - for the protection of tourists.

@Weskusklong,

Well said I do agree with the statement regarding the lions.

Thanks KG

Update on George Adamson, quoted from http://www.ofcats.com: "...George had to retire from his position of senior game warden after one of his lions 'Boy' mauled the son of another warden." Maybe the "boy" in the story referred to by Pikasso was... a lion... with the name Boy.


Boy the lion hitching a ride on George Adamson's Land Rover

I think it was Boy.

One of George Adamson's lions leaped up and snatched the child out of a Landrover where he was sitting between his parents as they were out travelling somewhere in the vicinity of GA's property. It grabbed the child by the head and he was very badly injured.

One of his lions also killed a member of staff I think a chef.

IMO, the story of Christian to some extent is not entirely true. Those guys did buy a lion in Harrods and live with it here in London.

Then when they could not cope any more they took it to Kenya to GA, where I can only say the rest of the story I have my doubts.

GA claimed that Christian had been established out in the bush and ultimately had his own pride. Which means a lion that had been in captivity from birth and fed by humans, would be fighting off wild lions at a time they were plentiful.

I am only giving a view but IMO, more likely Christian and his lady were still being fed by Adamson.

But, I could be wrong. It just seems unlikely to me. I don't really care for humans trying to give wild animals especially lions human characteristics.

In a similar manner every year here, we have terrible incidents where small children whose relatives have very dangerous dogs are killed. Always their human masters think their dog is a member of the family and it is allowed to live in close proximity to a toddler.

The reintroduction of predators to the bush is a fine science and I know that now it is successful.

wow guess we will never really know unless we were there

I had to look for the incident I was talking about previously. You can find it best described in "my pride and joy" (page 176 in the French version). It happened in Meru, and, reading through the lines, I think it was a car with a roof, windows left opened, as he wrote that the lion jumped and slid his head through the window...
Yes, it was Boy, who lately killed George assistant Stanley. Still George never believed it was because his lions were used to man. Of course, when you spend your life with dangerous animals, you are likely to face an accident. Should you conclude that it is because the lions behavior was changed?
George did feed his lions for long periods. The point being they they would, step by step, be less and less dependent on him... the book says it worked with Christian...

This is not what the book says. George was already retired from the game warden at this time. And he was authorized to carry on after the incident, though it took years before the boy's father talked to Geoge again, and he had to leave the Meru and find a more remote spot...

Well, as Wez said, we will never know as we were not there.

I love lions and we all must realise that they lead very violent lives. Establishing a pride is not for sissies and as we know, the males are constantly challenged.

Then again there is hunting they learn from other lions.

I have had a informal chat with Dr Gus Mills today about how long his project will still be going on regarding the cheetahs, he mentioned that they will still be in the park until March 2011 and after that they will be going to the UK to write up his findings (hopefully bring out a book) and then he will see if there is any new projects he could be involved in.

KG

So the cheetah project has been finished in March 2011 ??

Good Morning,

Sorry my mistake the Cheetah project will come to an end in the park March 2012, but again it will depend on if Dr. Mills have all the info he wanted to get.

KG

KG - The Cheetah project - what areas of research is Dr Mills covering - what do we still need to discover about these beautiful animals?

I will get from Dr. Mills an official report as to what his research was all about, then as soon as I have received a reply I will post the answer from Dr. Mills.

KG

Thank You. Look forward to it.

Good morning
I had a discussion about the wild dogs with one of the rangers at Mabuasehube this weekend. Apparently they are seen from time to time. It seems that they are a little more on the Eastern side in Botswana, than on the SA side. The last sighting was about a month ago on the Mabua pan. They were in a hurry and was only seen for a brief time. No photo's was taken. It's my dream to see some in the Kalahari. Maybe I can help with the research????? Just need some time and money.