Kevin Richardson’s unique relationship with some of Africa’s apex predators have opened many doors and captivated the imagination of many people throughout the world. He has presented and produced several documentaries that detail his relationships with the animals and highlight the plight of lions both in captivity and in the wild.
THE KEVIN RICHARDSON
WILDLIFE SANCTUARY’S MISSION
The Kevin Richardson Wildlife Sanctuary’s mission is to provide a self-sustaining African carnivore sanctuary for the purposes of wild species preservation. Through education, outreach and funding, our mission is to bring awareness to the rapid decline of large carnivores in Africa due to habitat loss, human-predator conflict, the illegal bush meat trade, unscrupulous hunting, disease, and illegal trade.
CONSERVATION MESSAGE
ON THE LIONS
There are thought to be as few as 15000-20000 lions left in the wild in Africa. Today the biggest threats lions face are habitat loss (largely due to human encroachment), human – lion conflict (retaliatory and pre-emptive killings), illegal bush meat trade (consequences which include indiscriminate snaring and prey depletion), unscrupulous trophy hunting, lion poaching (for the lion bone trade in the far east) and to a lesser extent disease.
Lion populations face a combination of these threats in the affected lion range states where numbers are declining.
This is what a 20 year old lions teeth look like. Tau is still pretty remarkable for his age but his teeth have seen better days. Most of his carnassial teeth are all but gone, his incisors have been completely resorbed on his bottom jaw, few missing on the top and his canines rather orange looking and blunt, but in relatively good nick considering the punishment they’ve endured over the years. We watch his diet closely as chewing meat is becoming more and more difficult for him. He’s on daily meds and therefore gets cubes of meat daily which helps.
One size does not fit all when working out dietary requirements for captive lions.
We’ve got some very exciting news for you this week: YouTube has invited Lion Whisperer TV to take part in a ‘Membership’ beta test! This new feature means that subscribers will have the opportunity to become Members of the channel, getting exclusive videos, posts and more for a monthly fee.
We cannot stress enough that regular Lion Whisperer TV will not change in any way, shape or form: this is about doing, making and filming MORE. And we want to hear your thoughts about this and whether it’s something you’d be interested in because, as ever, this channel is as much about you as it is the lions! So if you like the sound of becoming part of the pride and becoming a member, you can sign up by hitting the ‘Join’ button next to ‘Subscribe’.
https://youtu.be/5AaqRgkd7Bc