Walking With Lions!

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WARNING: Don’t try this at home!

(not that you’d have lions in your home anyway. And if you did, you should put them back where you found them)

Isn’t that lion cub cute? Don’t you want to pick him up and cuddle with him? It’s tough to believe that soft, smiling ball of fur will grow up to be the King of the Jungle and one of the most ferocious animals on land.

Where can you Walk with Lions?

When I was in South Africa last October, I spent a few nights at the Protea Hotel The Ranch in Polokwane. For the brave adventurer, they offer a Lion Walk on their reserve.

Like every other animal encounter in Africa, we woke up early and arrived at the facility. The owners are training the lions to be in films and television. But make no mistake, these lions are not domesticated. They’ll attack if their instinct tells them to.

I was hoping their instinct decided to sleep in that morning.

There were about 9 lions that went for a walk that morning. The oldest was several years old and starting to grow it’s mane. Most were little. When I knelt down to take their photo I was quickly reprimanded by our guides. Getting down low put me in a vulnerable position. The lions would see me as prey and attack. Even the cubs can inflict mortal damage.

After those words of warning, I spent the rest of the walk standing tall! Take a look in this YouTube video:

What if they Attack?

My walk was incredibly scary at first. I didn’t know what to expect. We had no protection other than a stick. If the lions were to start attacking me, I was instructed to hold the stick out. The lions would then stop attacking me and try to attack the end of the stick – in theory. They’ve become accustomed to eating meat off the ends of sticks. Which is all well and good if the end of your stick has meat on it.

Mine did not.

Once they discovered this trickery of mine, I just hope that they would have forgotten what they were doing before they started attacking the invisible meat on a stick. Because by this point, they’d be pretty ticked off.

Seriously folks, this is an “Only in Africa” kind of experience. There’s no team of lawyers that could sort this Release of Liability waiver out.

The list of adjectives to describe this experience could go on forever.

Celebrate Nature

When I reflect back on my time walking with lions in South Africa I can’t help but think about how special our planet truly is. Moments like these remind us that we’re not the only ones calling Earth our home.

We share our world with creatures great and small. We all need to do our part to preserve wildlife and wild places for future generations so that they can admire the intelligence, strength and beauty of lions, elephants, buffalo, sharks, jellyfish, rhinos, squirrels, leopards, kangaroos, tigers, bears, eagles and all the other members of the Animal Kingdom. Getting up close to Mother Nature strikes a chord within you. It’s indescribable.

SO WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

Since it’s Earth Day, what’s one small thing you’re going to do (or already did) to help our planet? Will you pick your favorite conservation organization and donate? Eliminate wasting electricity or water? Educate a friend about the importance of protecting our environment? Share by commenting below.

FUN LION FACT

Did you know…? The backs of a lion’s ears are black. When lions are on the prowl, they can follow each other’s movements by following the black tips on the ears. This makes tracking each other easier in the thick bush.

CONNECT ONLINE

adventureswithben.com has a Facebook Page. Connect online for more adventures. You can also view more photos of my lion walk too!

I’ll see you out there…!

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