I need to be able to read first! Ask Simba!

As you know I have a number of video's posted to YouTube including two videos of lions hunting.

The first has had just over 100,000 views & favorited by 32 people,this is the build up to an unsuccessful hunt.

The second shows the same pride about two hours later feasting on the carcass of a zebra. Nearly 400,000 views & favorited by 65 viewers.

My general video's of every day life in a lion pride, greeting grooming & the such, has less than 600 views & elephants 300 & 1000, Tigers 1000.

So Gore sells! Puts bums on seats which pulls in the Advertisers & their money!

You are so correct, kipper... and that is why our TV is usually OFF

Yes, Kipper, it's all about the (what used to be called) "The Almighty Dollar".

I was hooked on an Animal Planet program called "Escape to Chimp Eden" about the rescue of chimps that were captured for the pet trade and lived in horrible conditions. The program showed their rescue, medical quarantine and then gradual introduction into a brilliant chimpanzee sanctuary in South Africa, Jane Goodall's Chimp Eden. Then the second season of the show began in March but was then suddenly canceled. I wrote to AP but they wouldn't give a reason for this decision.

Then a few weeks later they aired a program about the severe mauling of a woman in the US from a friend's adult male"pet chimp" that she had been feeding anti-anxiety drugs to without a vet's approval. The drug was known to cause possible aggression and violence, in humans anyway. (Most animal attacks on humans tend to have resulted from a dumb decision on the human's part.)

I'd gotten to know many orphaned chimps that were rescued by Jane Goddall's people in Kenya and to play with them and learn from these amazing animals how intelligent they were and how unique each one's personality was....they ranged from several months old to full-grown adult males and females. So, the cancellation of this program was very personal to me - as finally, I thought, there was a program to vividly illuminate the tremendous range of appearance, behavior, intelligence and aptitude of these, our closed relatives. Of course it also showed the difficult and dangerous working conditions for the kind and decent humans trying to give them a decent quality of life.

But now the programming all for the most lurid and shocking of wildlife-human contact. What a shame.

Pippa -

I also was concerned seeing cubs in this Lion Park (Gauteng district, SA) video. Found a website which attempts to explain the reserve's captive lion breeding program (www.volunteersa.com/articles.html ) In part it states:

"The objective is to develop assisted reproduction as a conservation tool for African Lions as a means of counteracting inbreeding in lion prides".

Again, the question as with all captive animals, especially predators which need to constantly hone their hunting skill to a high degree - are these captive animals ever allowed to go back into the wild?
Or are they being held and bred simply for their reproductive/DNA material.

There is, of course, a real problem of wild lions and increasing inbreeding - as their territory is cut off by human encroachment and their numbers are further genetically isolated.

Have to study more about the pros and cons of this type of human manipulation before I cast a judgment,
as I know even in the remaining large areas for lions - inbreeding is a serious problem.

Yes, Pippa, wildlife corridors are vital. A few years ago, I visited MalaMala Private reserve adjacent to Kruger NP in SA and they had recently taken down their fence along the Kruger park border. I saw an amazing variety of elephant, several lion prides, cheetah, and my personal favorite, leopards...and a herd of 500 cape buffaloes. But the real stand out was the interaction of wild/painted dogs who were hunting and being chased by spotted hyenas.....the hyenas had the upper hand for a while, as they are much larger and heavier than the dogs, but the dogs called for reinforcements and thoroughly beat back the hyenas. All this in a short 3 day stay.

I continue to believe the human population boom is wildlife conservation's biggest problem. The population in Kenya, for instance, has doubled in the few years I've been visiting. How will wildlife not just be completely wiped off the planet? But that's another topic.

Kat

Kat

Of course yiu are right! Humans are the problem animals!
you will love the new wilddog pubs at Djuma on www.wildearth.tv.
They are absolutely cute!