SOUTH AFRICA: A boost for wildlife conservation in South Africa as the first white lion cubs are born in their natural habitat

Record ID: 455387

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: A boost for wildlife conservation in South Africa as the first white lion cubs are born in their natural habitat
  • Date: 13th October 2008
  • Summary: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA, (OCTOBER 10, 2008), (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) GLOBAL WHITE LION PROTECTION TRUST FOUNDER, LINDA TUCKER SAYING: "In the wild there's an 80% mortality rate of lions, so it's very important the future of the white lions depends on these little cubs. The mother kept them hidden for six weeks and then took them out of the grass, this is the first sighting of these amazing animals which are regarded as sacred animals in Africa"
  • Embargoed: 28th October 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: South Africa
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Environment / Natural World,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVAB7J8VKW8YBHBLHVRS6XDKZRW6
  • Story Text: First ever white lion cubs to be born in their natural habitat.
    After nearly 16 years of almost extinction in their natural habitat, three snow white lion cubs were born in the Greater Timbavati near the Kruger National Park in South Africa.
    The birth of these three cubs is a momentous occasion that heralds a new era for this rare lineage. There are only an estimated 500 white lions world-wide - in captivity.
    Regarded by African tribal elders as the most sacred animal on the African continent, these white lions have been hunted to extinction in the wild by trophy hunters and poachers who pay astronomical sums to shoot a white lion for pleasure. They have also been hunted in captivity in a notorious malpractice known as 'canned lion hunting.' No law protects them from being wiped off the face of the earth.
    Initiated by the Global White Lion Protection Trust (WLT), a challenging world-first White Lion reintroduction program has yielded extraordinary results in returning the white lion gene to the white lions' endemic habitat.

    "In the wild there's an 80% mortality rate of lions, so it's very important the future of the white lions depends on these little cubs. The mother kept them hidden for six weeks and then took them out of the grass, this is the first sighting of these amazing animals which are regarded as sacred animals in Africa" said Linda Tucker, who is the founder of Global White Lion Protection Trust and the author author of the book, Mystery of the White Lions.
    Since the private reserve of Timbavati still hunts lions as trophies, the Trust had to purchase its own land within the white lions' ancestral homelands in order to safeguard these prized animals. In a carefully phased long-term reintroduction program, four white lions of the highest genetic pedigree were re-introduced into their natural habitat in 2006, and conservation work has been ongoing to monitor their progress.

    "We have high hopes that the South African government will declare a moratorium for the protection of the white lion which are a national symbol, a great inspiring national symbol" added Tucker. The founding pride wowed the world by hunting self-sufficiently within weeks of their release, but one year later tragedy struck when the mother of the three sub-adult cubs died while hunting and providing for her young. The youngsters had to survive without their mother against great odds. At the best of times, the mortality rate for lions in the wild is 80 percent. However, the three cubs pulled through and after the introduction of a new bloodline, two different prides have formed. The two males have bonded with two golden females from the wilds of that greater region. And the female who was joined by a male from a different genetic lineage, now has her own family of three white cubs - the first to be born in the wilds of their ancestral kingdom.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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