Rescued big cats 'coming home'

2007-01-25 17:29

Guy Jepson

Nelspruit - A lion and lioness will be back on African soil next week after being rescued from a travelling circus in Portugal.

They were found living with two tigers in a rusty wagon on a roadside near Lisbon last April by a fieldworker from Animal Defenders International (ADI).

Michelle Damaskinos of the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre in Limpopo said: "According to ADI, the situation was desperate, with the animals in poor condition in two cages with poor sanitation, lack of water and lack of space."

One tiger died, but the surviving one, who has been named Tarzan, and the two lions, Sarah and Caesar, will be resettled at the centre next Friday.

Will be kept in quarantine

Damaskinos said the big cats appeared to be in good condition after recovering in a Lisbon Zoo.

The centre's chief veterinarian, Professor David Meltzer, will travel to Portugal next week to monitor the cats on the flight to Johannesburg and the five-hour road journey to Hoedspruit.

They will be kept in quarantine enclosures before being released into special permanent enclosures at the centre.

The circus, Circo International, had been forced to stop touring for financial reasons, but the animals were still legally under its control.

ADI convinced the Portuguese authorities to step in and the animals were taken to the zoo.

Damaskinos said it was highly unlikely the three surviving cats would be released back into the wild because they had spent too long in captivity and no one knew where they had come from.

Another circus rescue

The Hoedspruit centre is famous for breeding cheetahs and relocating them from areas where they are in danger.

Many rescued cheetahs are later released back into the wild.

ADI and the Hoedspruit centre started collaborating in 1996, when ADI rescued six lions, three tigers, horses, dogs and a python from a Mozambican circus.

- African Eye