By Simon Leufstedt
Monday, 28 July, 2008

About the Author

Simon Leufstedt is the editor of Green Blog. Simon has previously studied Global Environmental Justice and is currently studying Human Ecology and Political Science at Lund University in Sweden. Simon is also blogging over at the Swedish 350 website and working with the Swedish TckTckTck organisation. You can follow Simon on Twitter.

View all posts by Simon Leufstedt

Video: Christian the Lion

This 38-year old-video which shows a lion being reunited with his two childhood owners has already been seen by millions on video sites like YouTube. And now it has come to Green Blog (Yes, we are suckers for cute movies).

The lion named Christian was bought from an exotic animals department in Harrods in 1969 by the two Australians John Rendall and Anthony Bourke for 250 guineas. They took him home and raised him in their flat.

SkyNews reports:

“The urban lion became a popular local figure in their London antiques shop, until he went from a manageable 35 pounds to 185 pounds, a year later.

Christian was moved to the Kenyan wildlife sanctuary featured in the movie Born Free, and after a year living in the wild, was found by his former owners with a pride of his own.

The 38-year-old video captures the emotional moment which shows the lion stalking towards the two men, until they call out his name.”

Watch the video:

Christian left the Kora Reserve in 1973. He made his new territory along the Tana river, but when the Wakamba herdsmen kept bringing their livestock to his hunting ground, he moved on. George Adamson said in his autobiography:

“I used to count the days on which we hadn’t seen Christian, but when they reached 97, I gave up recording them in my diary.”

Because a lion can live from 12 to 15 years in the wild, Adamson believed that Christian ended his days in the Meru National Reserve only a few miles up river.

More Like This Story

Support This Author

Did you find this article interesting? If so, please consider supporting this author by clicking the Flattr button. All Flattr clicks from this button will go directly to Simon Leufstedt. Thank you for supporting our independent content creators!

Post comment as twitter logo facebook logo
Sort: Newest | Oldest

oh, come on guys. Christian wasn't stalking them. he was just walking towards them - what you don't see unless you go to the bornfree.org website to see the original, George Adamson was walking a few yards right behind Christian!

Trackbacks

  1. [...] Over 7 million people have watched the video on You Tube. There is also a good post on Green Blog.  [...]

Comment Guideline

Comments with profanity, personal attacks or objectionable material will be edited or deleted. Feel free to refute someone's points or offer counter arguments, but please do not engage in name calling.

Green Blog Community

  Join our green community! Meet new people that share your interests and discuss various topics.