Saving the Lion

A couple of weeks ago we had planned a game drive around Jejane Private Nature Reserve. I arrived at Glen and Traci's house expecting it to be another by the book game drive. I was wrong. Glen had received a phone call saying that share holders, that own property on the reserve, had come across a small pride of sub adult lions, and that two of the lions seemed to have wire snears around their necks.  We got all our things together, and headed off to find the lions.

Glen knew exactly where to go, having lived on Jejane for 15 years. We did a little bit of bush wacking to get close enough to the lions to observe the extent of the damage. It did not take too long to find the lion that needed help. The snear was so bad that it had become so tight that the lion was battling to breath. And it seemed as if the snear had somehow made its way into the lion’s mouth. He was obviously in a lot of pain and we needed to do something quickly.

 As soon as we moved out and away from the lions, hoping that they would stay there where we left them, we contacted legendary wildlife vet Dr Peter Rogers and his skilled team, to come and dart the wounded lion and then remove the snear from around the lions neck. Time was not on our side so we needed to move quickly. The reserve is over 5000 hectares so once we lost the lions it would be very difficult to find them again.

Seeing Dr Rogers appear on the horizon 45 min later was a relief.  We unpacked all the boxes, medical containers and dart gun into the game viewer, separated everyone into two vehicles and off we went, heading back to the place where we hoped the lions would be. They were gone.

We tracked and looked for the lions for two hours, time was ticking away and still no sign of them. After a lot a debate and discussion we decided to head to a nearby dam, to chance our luck and hope that the Lions had headed that way to drink. As we approached, our hearts lifted and there they were. Luck was on our side.

Now the tricky part was to get close enough to dart the injured lion, but not to close that we would scare them away in to thick bush. After a lot of contemplating and positioning of the vehicle, we got close enough to dart the lion. Dr Rogers was spot on with his shooting skills.

Once the lion had dropped it was Glen s job to make sure that the rest of the pride would not come back to see what was going on with their brother. Dr Rogers leapt out of the viewer and tended to the lion. We moved him into a more open area and then the magic happened. We cut the snear away and checked all the vitals and condition of the young lion. 

He was doing very well; the snare was so tight around his neck it would have chocked him for sure. When it came time for the lion to wake up we were all in the vehicles keeping an eye on him. It took him 15 min to get back on his feet from the time that the sedative had worn off. He was very wobbly and not really too sure about what had happened.

I must say it was the most amazing feeling to see the lion get up, back on his feet and wonder off into the bush looking for his family. They re united shortly after we left them in peace. 

I would like to say a big thank you to Glen for taking us along with him, Dr Rogers and his team; you guys did a phenomenal job.