Below I will post information I just read on amaraconservation.org. It is extremely interesting to me because one always hears that captive lions cannot be released to the wild because they have never been taught to hunt and will die of starvation. Thus we hear of the South African game farms who threaten euthanasia for 5,000 lions if sport hunting is made illegal.

I don't know if the story below is a very unusual one, or if indeed when lions are released, when they get hungry enough they will learn to kill on their own. It is something I would like to see more information on. Does anyone else know more about this?

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Orphaned Lion Update
Both Good & Bad News About The Orphaned Lion Trio
From the June 2006 Newsletter

The three orphaned lion cubs found trapped in a pit in Northern Kenya were moved to Mugie Ranch in January 2005 under the supervision of Claus Mortensen. Although the male of the three unfortunately did not survive the relocation process (often a risk when handling wild animals brought into captivity) the two females thrived in the Boma until December 2005. At that point they were collared with radio transmitters, given a final health check, and released to the wild.

They were then tracked by radio, as visual contact is likely to impede the rehabilitation process. The first indication of a successful return to the wild was the killing of a warthog within a week of release. This was very encouraging, as although they had never hunted or even seen a hunt, they had hunted and fed on their own immediately upon their release.

A few weeks later one of the females was killed by two new males who entered the area. Although this is sad in light of the dwindling lion population in Africa, the project is still considered a success. Experts on the topic suggest this event is probably a natural occurrence in lion communities in the wild. Surprisingly little is actually known about many aspects of lion social behavior.

To raise lions in a Boma for one year and have them not become habituated is a remarkable accomplishment on Claus Mortensen's part. How well and quickly they adapted to life in the wild makes it clear that Claus and his team have accomplished something unprecedented and they deserve our highest respect for all they have done. The other lioness is strong and healthy, killing zebras and feeding herself. She is the real success!! Amara is proud to have been a partner in the process.

www.amaraconservation.org

the adamson had already proven that lions can hunt by instinct despite being rared by humans.
very interesting article you posted let me to an additional organsiation which might be worthwhile to support.
thanks jan!

There are many factors that may impact success on the rehabilitation of captive lions to the wild. The size of the boma, frequency and length of human contact during the captive stage, method of feeding, etc. IMO, all wild animals whether made captive from the wild or bred in captivity retain their wild instincts. Certain conditions during captivity may supress these to some degree or other but once released and allowed to fend for themselves will undoubtly regain some or most of these. Faced with starvation, a captive bred lion will eventually kill to feed itself if there is sufficient prey around. That's JMHO.

I just received a note from Bev regarding the Amara story and this is her comment:

Your story on the lions is very sad to me. Those two lionesses do not really stand much of a chance. More than likely they will both be killed by pride lions. I do not think there has ever been a happy ending for single lions being released back into the wild where there are other wild lions in their territory. As i understand it, lions do not survive well alone

That more or less confirms my thoughts. I believe the hunting instinct is always there, but these animals never learned about the dangers in the bush.

Even for a lion hunting is not easy. Gazells, zebras, gnus, they all know how to protect themselves, especially when they are fighting for their life. A lion that grew up in captivity doesn't know that food can fight back

I have just watched the movie Eight Below, based on a true story. The huskies that were left behind in Ant Arctica freed themselves from their chains and survived by hunting as a pack for 175 days before being rescued. They were already a pack. All they had to do to survive was to hone their natural hunting skills to survive.
I raised many meerkats when rehabbing animals in the Kalahari. To release a single meerkat alone into the Kalahari was a death sentence. They too are colony animals and need to work cohesively to survive. 5 meerkats (from the pet trade in Johannesburg) were taken back to the kalahari and released without supervision by well-intentioned but ill-informed people in Joburg,and the animals were all dead within the week. In this case these little animals did not know the dangers from their natural predators and although they may have found food they did not work together as a group in protecting each other.
In order to release meerkats u have to build up a functioning colony and then release the whole colony into suitable habitat. From 3 babies (also from the pet trade) my little group grew to a colony of 30 self supporting meerkats. But it was a long process of walking with them in the bush every day, teaching them where to find food by hiding mealworms under rocks and being part of their group i had to alert them to danger when i saw it. In this way over years they grew into a functioning body and were very successful.
Lions are difficult. How do u protect your little group? It was easy with the meerkats, when the wild group arrived to beat up my little group of three, i would just grab the tails of those that belonged to me and run for cover. That was until they became a big enough group to protect their own interests and own territory. I dont see it being that easy to grab your little lions to protect them from the pride that happens on them.
Trophy hunting is devasting to lion prides. The Jouberts (wildlife photographers) say "the unnatural death of prime pride males has devastating effects on the pride and social chaos spirals. This means that anything up to 12 cubs die and fourteen lions disappear from the area potentially. " Thats just losing the pride male. Now we try to release hand raised lions into this kind of climate and its disastrous. I am quite sure they will hunt adequately but there is little doubt that they will be killed by wild lions who have pride backup. If wild lions find it difficult to regroup after a pride death, how much more difficult is it for tame hand-reared animals to surive in such a hostile world. A lion is not considered rehabbed until it has become amalgated in a social structure and has reproduced and raised its cubs within that structure. The way i see it is the only way to really rehab lions is to do it by creating a pride and then releasing a working pride. Once that pride has survived in the wild for years only then can it be seen to be successful.