A picture speaks a 1,000 words but a memory… an experience speaks a million. One of the most amazing experiences we’ve had thus far was our encounter with the lions/ lionesses (in Africa a lion is called Shumba) and learning about the program in antelope park. In Africa, a prominent problem stems from ticks and the many diseases they pass. Thus we gave lions flea/tick protectant (spot on) and dewormed them with ivermectin injected into meat and fed the meat to the lions. With the spot on we had to shoot the liquid onto their back via a syringe, so we had to distract them with meat and have them turn their backs to us which was rather difficult with how aggressive they are. We also observed lion feeding happening. The most interesting portion is they will lay on food and defend it as a dominance thing rather then because they are actually hungry. This can go on for hours and the weaker ones would just have to wait it out. It was amazing seeing wild lions and learning how truly aggressive they can be despite their cute cuddly appearance. Learning about the lion program in antelope park was also fascinating and the phases they are initiating to be able to release lions back into the wild. Phase one consisted of breeding. Once they had enough lions/lionesses they gave contraception’s to the lionesses; however this can only be used 3 times as it can cause reproductive issues in the future. Because of this, they have separated the lions and lionesses. Phase two consists of finding a preserve that has enough hunter to prey ratio which they are currently working on. Phase three then involves release the cubs (once they are old enough) of the phase 2 lions/ lionesses into the wild since these ones won’t have any human interaction.
– Linda, SPC Zimbabwe Vet Tech Program, June 2022

On Friday June 10th 2022, we went to learn about the lions that are cared for by the staff of Antelope Park. We drove down to their enclosures on the right side of the park and our plan was to give them their dewormers and apply topical tick prevention. On the way, we learned that the previous owners of the park used to do “lion walks” with the lions in captivity to try to give them the chance to learn how to hunt and how to live in the wild. Since then, the goal has been to prepare the lions in a way to be released back into the wild so each new generation of lions would have less human contact in order to get them more used to living on their own. This would also help reduce human wildlife conflict as they would avoid hunting too close to human populations once released.

Unfortunately, the secondary location to be used for the next generation of lion-raised cubs has not been found yet so the staff at Antelope park has not been able to start this transition. Due to this delay, staff initially tried using injectable contraceptives for the female lions to avoid pregnancies but that was making the female lions sterile and unable to reproduce after just a few injections. As of now, the lions are kept separately (males in one enclosure and females in the other) so that they cannot reproduce until the staff at Antelope Park are ready to transition into their next phase of release.

Once at the enclosures, we retrieved some stored meat (cow leg) and our dewormer/prevention supplies. We went to an enclosure with 3 female lions who were separated into a smaller “holding” enclosure on the side and our guide cut some meat off the cow leg. We then used a needle and syringe to draw up the dewormer (ivermectin) and injected it into each piece of meat (1 dose per lioness). Once the medication was injected into the pieces of meat, each lioness was given an individual piece through the fence and all received their dewormers. After that, we cut some more meat off the cow leg to use when applying the topical tick prevention (spot-on). The meat was used as a distracting treat to keep the lionesses by the fence and while they were trying to take it, someone else would take the syringe of tick prevention, put it through the fence, push on the plunger, and spray the preventative on the shoulders/back of the lionesses. Once all the lionesses were given their meds, we moved on to an enclosure with 2 male lions and did the same procedures with them. Also, during the time we were working with giving medications, other staff and volunteers were cleaning the enclosures for those particular lions (picking up stool and leftover pieces of meat/bone).”
– Kimberly, SPC Zimbabwe Vet Tech Program, June 2022