Sometimes species that are exotic to a region are brought in to attract tourists, even though staff may be ill-equipped to manage them. All rights reserved. Update: This story was updated on March 5 at pm ET with a line to make clear that Richardson wasn't leading a lion walk for tourists on the day the woman was mauled, although that is a practice followed by some other game managers.
Supporters of Richardson say he does not conduct lion walks for tourists, although experts warn that any close interaction between people and lions can be dangerous.
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If you were present during this scene, unfolding on a grassy plain in a northeast corner of South Africa, this would be exactly when you would appreciate the sturdiness of the security fence that stood between you and the pair of lions. Even so, you might take a quick step back when one of the animals turned its attention away from Richardson and for an instant locked eyes with you. Then, noting which side of the fence Richardson was on, you might understand why so many people place bets on when he will be eaten alive.
There is probably no one in the world with a more recognized relationship with wild cats. The most popular YouTube video of Richardson frolicking with his lions has been viewed more than 25 million times and has more than 11, comments. After all, every fiber in our being tells us not to cozy up with animals as dangerous as lions. When someone defies that instinct, it seizes our attention like a tightrope walker without a net.
I was puzzled by how Richardson managed it, but just as much by why. Was he a daredevil with a higher threshold for fear and danger than most people? They snuggle up to him, as lazy as house cats.
They nap in a pile with him. They simply seem to have accepted him in some way, as if he were an odd, furless, human-shaped lion. How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets and naturalists for ages. With their parallel and unknowable lives, animals offer us relationships that exist in the realm of silence and mystery, distinct from those we have with others of our own species.
A rapport with domesticated animals is familiar to all of us, but anyone who can have that kind of relationship with wild animals seems exceptional, perhaps a little mad. Some years ago, I read a book by the writer J. Allen Boone in which he detailed his connection with all manner of creatures, including a skunk and the actor dog Strongheart. Boone was especially proud of the friendship he developed with a housefly he named Freddie.
The man and his fly did household chores and listened to the radio together. Befriending a housefly, crazy as it seems, raises the question of what it means when we bond across species. Is there anything to it beyond the amazing fact that it has been accomplished? Is it a mere oddity, a performance that is revealed to signify nothing special or important after the novelty has worn off?
Does it violate something fundamental—a sense that wild things should eat us or sting us or at least avoid us, not snuggle us—or is it valuable because it reminds us of a continuity with living creatures that is easily forgotten?
Because of his great naturalness with wildlife, you might expect that Richardson grew up in the bush, but he is the product of a Johannesburg suburb with sidewalks and streetlamps and not even a whiff of jungle.
The first time he laid eyes on a lion was on a first-grade field trip to the Johannesburg Zoo. He was impressed, but he also remembers thinking it odd that the king of the jungle existed in such reduced circumstances. He found his way to animals anyway. Richardson was a rebellious youngster, a hell-raiser.
He is now 40 years old, married and the father of two young children, but it is still easy to picture him as a joy-riding teenager, rolling cars and slamming back beers. During that period, animals were pushed to the margins of his life, and he came back to them in an unexpected way.
In high school, he dated a girl whose parents included him on family trips to national parks and game reserves, which reignited his passion for wildlife.
After college, while working in a gym as a trainer, he became friendly with a client named Rodney Fuhr, who had made a fortune in retail.
Like Richardson, he was keen on animals. In , Fuhr bought a faded tourist attraction called Lion Park, and he urged Richardson to come see it. Richardson says he knew little about lions at the time, and his first trip to the park was a revelation. I visited those cubs every day for the next eight months. When you visit Richardson in the Dinokeng Game Reserve, now home to a wildlife sanctuary that bears his name, you have little hope for uninterrupted sleep. The lions wake up early, and their roars rumble and thunder through the air when the sky is still black with night.
Richardson wakes up early, too. He is dark-haired and bright-eyed, and has the handsome, rumpled look of an actor in an after-shave commercial. His energy is impressive. He is the first to admit to a hardy appetite for adrenaline and a tendency to do things to an extreme. He is also capable of great tenderness, cooing and sweet-talking his lions. On my first morning at the reserve, Richardson hurried me over to meet two of his favorite lions, Meg and Ami, whom he has known since they were cubs at Lion Park.
When Lion Park first opened, in , it was revolutionary. Unlike zoos of that era, with their small, bare enclosures, Lion Park allowed visitors to drive through a property where wildlife wandered loose. The array of African plains animals, including giraffes, rhinoceroses, elephants, hippopotamuses, wildebeests and a variety of cats, had once thrived in the area, but the park is on the outskirts of Johannesburg, an enormous urban area, and over the previous century most of the land in the region has been developed for housing and industry.
In June he launched his own YouTube channel: Lion Whisperer TV, introducing the world to his lions and work on a daily basis which has garnered over 1,, subscribers and continues to reach new audiences. Kevin also provided unlimited access to the sanctuary for Natalia Borrego one of the experts in the series , to complete her PhD in lion cognition.
Kevin has taken part in many speaking events on lions and lion conservation and was a guest speaker at Google Zeitgeist, alongside influential speakers including former US presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and the esteemed scientist Dr Craig Venter who is responsible for DNA sequencing the human genome.
Collaborations with world-recognised artists and photographers help to raise awareness and funds for conservation. Box , Derdepark, Pretoria South Africa,
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