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A race against time is on to save four war-traumatised Ukrainian lions and give them a new home in the UK.
Yorkshire Post
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23/10/2023
Video provide by Yorkshire Wildlife Park
Category
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News
Transcript
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00:00
Lion Rescue is back on, Ukraine to Yorkshire Wildlife Park.
00:04
Eiza and her three cubs, Teddy, Emi and Santa,
00:08
traumatised by the devastating war in Ukraine.
00:12
Dramatically rescued from a private facility in the war zone to sanctuary in Poland.
00:17
They need specialist care and rehabilitation,
00:20
as do so many of these forgotten animals from the war zone.
00:24
Back in 2010, Yorkshire Wildlife Park was made famous for rescuing 13 lions
00:29
from Romania. Now 13 years on, we have space in our
00:33
wonderful 10 acre reserve. To give these lions from Ukraine a
00:39
fantastic, wonderful life and the care that they so deserve,
00:43
Yorkshire Wildlife Park is committed to making this happen.
00:48
Colin Northcutt from Yorkshire Wildlife Park has been to assess the lions in
00:52
their temporary facility. Colin spent a week with the lions to
00:56
assess how they were. They were terrified and confused, but
01:00
gradually they got to know him and relaxed. We just need to get them
01:06
back to Yorkshire Wildlife Park so we can rehabilitate them to a normal life
01:10
and let them be lions again. Let's get them home by Christmas.
01:15
We can't save every animal in need, but we can help this family
01:20
and raise awareness of those who are helping these forgotten animals from the
01:23
war zone.
01:26
Hello, my name is Colin Northcutt and I'm the Deputy Head of Section
01:33
on the Carnivores at Yorkshire Wildlife Park.
01:37
Now I'm here in Poznan in Poland to have a look at some lions that were
01:42
rescued from the war zone in Ukraine.
01:46
Yorkshire Wildlife Park are going to be taking on four of these lions,
01:51
three cubs and mum. The cubs are only about eight, nine months old and
01:57
mum is about three and a half years old and
02:01
the cubs are Teddy, Amy, Santa and mum is called Asia. The cubs are very,
02:08
very nervous, really scared, which as you can imagine
02:12
is pretty terrifying coming from a war zone.
02:15
Part of my job here is to try and help calm them
02:19
and make a familiar face for them so that when they come to Yorkshire
02:24
they have something that they recognize and will hopefully help them to settle in
02:29
a little bit quicker. Mum Asia has already settled in very,
02:33
very well and she's very, very calm so hopefully when they make the big move
02:38
to Yorkshire they will be just as settled.
02:43
Now they currently don't have any outside area because unfortunately
02:46
the area is taken up by tigers which were also rescued from Ukraine.
02:51
Bosnan Zoo here has done a fantastic job in taking on some of these animals
02:56
and I'm very, very happy to be involved with
02:59
helping to bring some of them back to Yorkshire
03:03
and hopefully give them a fantastic life in sunny England.
03:09
So this is mum, she's fairly friendly, she's quite
03:15
quite calm, not as panicky as the cubs are.
03:20
Now if I go around a bit further you'll see the cubs and straight away they
03:26
do retreat into the cover of the platform here
03:32
and they will probably start hissing and spitting at me.
03:37
They are growling, they are still very, very nervous.
03:44
That's Teddy underneath and the two girls.
03:51
Now although they have names no one knows who is who. They've not been
03:58
microchipped and that's happening next week so
04:02
nobody actually knows which one is which so
04:05
you're gonna have to kind of guess that one
04:09
and assign names to them but that's Teddy underneath.
04:14
This is actually much better than it has been because
04:18
they are normally very, very hissy and spitty at me
04:24
and they're not too bad today so they definitely seem to be getting used to my
04:28
presence here and the fact that this one is out
04:31
is a bit of a breakthrough because it took them two or three hours to come
04:35
out when I first arrived so this is fantastic.
04:39
Now these two pens are basically their home for the time being
04:44
until they come to Yorkshire. The reason they've been separated
04:49
is because when they first arrived obviously they
04:52
transport they had to be separated for transport so when they first arrived and
04:56
they tried to mix them back together again
04:58
as you're here did actually attack them and cause a few minor injuries
05:07
and because they don't have an outside area they
05:10
are reluctant to put them together again
05:14
in this situation because it's not really an escape route for them
05:18
and it can be quite dangerous so main mixing will happen back at
05:24
Yorkshire and we'll see how that goes when they
05:28
get there so hopefully it won't be too long.
05:31
Cubs come back forward again see what I was up to.
05:35
When I first arrived they were walking the front but
05:45
they've unfortunately gone straight back into their usual position of cowering
05:50
they're very, very nervous.
05:53
So the male on the left and the female are a little bit calmer today but the female over in the corner
06:13
as you can see is still very, very nervous if I get anywhere near the bars
06:18
she hisses and spits quite badly, quite stressful.
06:24
First time feeding from the tongs let's see what she does.
06:30
Come on then.
06:40
Good girl. Can you try? And a keeper, Camilla. Look at that.
06:49
Excellent.
07:08
Good girl, good girl. Now she knows what it is.
07:14
Good girl.
07:19
Excellent.
07:37
She would not have done this a few days ago.
07:41
This is great.
07:46
Much more relaxed than yesterday.
07:50
I think they're more comfortable with my presence.
08:05
They really do not like sweeping. That's evident.
08:10
Absolutely brilliant. I'm very, very happy with this. Very pleased in such a short space of time.
08:34
This is my last day so having them this relaxed with me around it is absolutely brilliant for
08:45
such a short space of time. I think it's been quite a successful trip with this.
08:49
That's fantastic. I mean it doesn't look it on camera but that's very,
08:55
very close to me. I'm only a few feet from the mesh.
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