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Christian the Lion
The Story of Christian the lion and its eventual release back into the wild
Christian was a lion originally purchased by Australians John Rendall and Anthony 'Ace' Bourke from Harrods department store of London in 1969
Why did John Rendall & Ace Bourke buy the lion?
"A friend had been to the 'exotic animals' department at Harrods and announced, rather grandly, that she wanted a camel," says Rendall. "To which the manager very coolly replied: 'One hump or two, madam?' "Ace and I thought this was the most sophisticated repartee we'd ever heard, so we went along to check it out - and there, in a small cage, was a gorgeous little lion cub. We were shocked. We looked at each other and said something's got to be done about that."
Harrods was also quite keen to be rid of Christian, they had acquired the cub from Ilfracombe zoo. They agreed to part with Christian for 250 guineas.
Christian moved in to their Chelsea flat located above their furniture store (pic).
Christian was given his own living quarters (and a very large kitty-litter tray, which he used unfailingly) in the basement.
"He had a beautiful musky smell that was very distinct," says Rendall. "But he was clean."
"He was a lot of work," says Rendall. "It took all four of us - me, my then girlfriend Jennifer Mary, Ace Berg and an actress called Unity Jones - to look after him. He also ate a lot, four meals (two liquid, two solid) plus supplements every day, which cost about £30 a week - a lot of money back then."
"And he had a very good sense of humour."
" Sometimes, he'd see people staring at him through the back window of the car, keep very still on purpose - and then, just when they were convinced he was a stuffed toy, he would very slowly turn his head and freak them out."
He grew and grew - from 35lb when he first arrived to an imposing 185lb a year later. He clearly could not stay with his two owners for ever.
His future was decided by a chance encounter when the actors Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna walked into the shop to buy a pine desk.
They had recently starred in the film Born Free, which tells the true story of the wildlife conservationist George Adamson and his wife Joy, who raised a lion cub called Elsa in Kenya then rehabilitated it into the wild. They immediately suggested that Adamson maybe able to help.
The conservationist Adamson said "you must be prepared for this not to work. Elsa was born in Africa and she knew its smells. Taking a British-born lion, whose parents were also raised in captivity, is going to be a very different thing."
Adamson agreed to help reintegrate Christian into the wild at his compound at Kora National Reserve.
Adamson introduced Christian to an older lion named 'Boy' and subsequently to a female cub 'Katiana' in order to form the nucleus of a new pride. The pride suffered many setbacks: Katiana was possibly devoured by crocodiles at a watering hole, another female was killed by wild lions, and Boy was injured, afterwards losing his ability to socialize with other lions and humans, and was shot through the heart by Adamson after fatally wounding a man. These events left Christian as the sole surviving member of the original pride.
Adamson continued his work, and over the course of a year the pride established itself in the region around Kora, with Christian as the head of the pride started by Boy
When Rendall and Bourke were informed by Adamson of Christian's successful reintroduction to the wild, they travelled to Kenya to visit Christian and were filmed in the documentary Christian, The Lion at World's End. According to the documentary, Adamson advised Rendall and Bourke that Christian probably would not remember them.
Below is a clip of that happened during that reunion.
jr (2008-12-18)
