Born Free Foundation - Keep Wildlife in the Wild

The Born Free Foundation project partner, the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority (EWCA), is strengthening its resource infrastructure across the country, but for the time being EWCA has little or no presence in some of the more remote areas.

Over the past two years I have spread the word about the work of Born Free Foundation among the human development non-government organisations, and on several occasions these NGO’s have provided important information about wildlife being kept illegally that I have then relayed to EWCA.

A couple of weeks ago, I received a call from a development work representative who had recently returned from a trip to the far south of Ethiopia. They reported seeing a small lion cub chained in a wooden shack. The lion cub was being poked with sticks and pelted with rocks by local children. I reported the information to EWCA who asked Born Free Foundation to help.

At the crack of dawn, with all the necessary items ready for an animal rescue, Bereket (the construction supervisor for the new Born Free Foundation Wildlife Centre) and I collected Dr Fekada, a newly qualified vet employed by EWCA.  I drove south to Awasser and then on to Yabelo. Driving through these rich hills it is difficult to conceive of the famine and drought in other parts of the country.  The journey from Addis Ababa to Yabelo was 595 kilometres and took nearly 10 hours.

On the way out of Yabelo, we collected Aman, the warden of the Yabelo Sanctuary before turning off the Moyale road to head east into the Somali Region of Ethiopia. The red soil road stretched away into the distance and we saw no other vehicle on the 180 kilometre drive to the town of Hudet.

We reached Hudet at midday, and met with the local government administrator. The Administrator’s office soon filled with people as the news spread through the village that a foreigner was in town. Dr Fekada and Aman explained the new Government Proclamation that forbids the keeping of wildlife without a permit, and the Administrator agreed that the lion cub should not be kept in the village. The Administrator and some of his team accompanied us to meet Hussein Sheik Hassen, who had the lion in a wood, slatted building behind his café. According to Hussein, three lion cubs had been ‘found’. No one seemed to know what had happened to the mother, but the Administrator told us that on several occasions lions have taken farmers’ livestock, so a farmer probably had shot the lioness. Two of the cubs had died, but Hussein had kept the female cub that he called Safia.

Hussein showed us where Safia was chained up. The cub was far older than I expected. I had been told the cub was seven weeks old. The cub in front of me was more like seven months old. Safia’s front right foot looked unnaturally offset. I asked Hussein whether the foot had been damaged and he calmly told the story of how children had thrown rocks at the cub and broken its foot a while back. Even as Hussein told us the story, children had come up on the other side of the slatted wall behind the cub and were pushing sticks through the gaps and screaming at the lion. Understandably the cub snarled and roared and ran back to escape the sticks and noise. However, the lion’s escape was choked back harshly when the cub ran to the end of its two metre length of chain.

I crouched down just out of reach of the lion and asked if all the children could please be taken away so the lion cub would calm down. Although there were over a hundred villagers noisily discussing the event out in the courtyard, within a few minutes of the children being ushered away, Safia cautiously came over to sniff at my outstretched hand. I tried to look at the damaged foot, but Safia was having none of it!

The Hudet Administrator with his assistants, Hussein and the Born Free Foundation team then retired to the shade of a tree to debate the lion’s future. After nearly two hours, Hussein agreed that the lion should be given a spacious home where it could live without a chain around its neck.

Then Hussein told me to take the lion away, but that the cub’s full name must be Safia Hussain Sheik Hassen.
 
I was not at all sure how the cub would react to a white-skinned stranger and had already seen how the cub’s mood could switch rapidly from being calm to being a dangerous liability. The EWCA vet had moved about 25 metres away and informed me he had not brought any tranquillisers as he thought the cub was very small, however, we had to collect the cub there and then. I positioned the dog crate where the cub obviously liked to sit furthest from where the children could reach it with sticks. I then slowly moved towards the cub to gauge its reaction. The cub snarled and climbed the wood slatted wall to get away from me, but could not hold its grip for long, and dropped back to the ground. Seeing the safety of the dark dog crate, the cub snarled and shot inside.

Rather too many villagers shouted farewells and tapped on the windows to get the cub to give some last roars, but at last we were away to drive the 180 kilometres back to Yabelo.

On the drive back to Addis I debated where we could keep Safia, since we have only just resolved all the land issues for the new Wildlife Centre site, so have no suitable enclosure for a seven month old cub. There was no alternative but to hastily move the spare bed into the garage.  The cub became my house guest whilst we organised a temporary enclosure.

Over the next few days, Safia calmed down a lot since she is not being poked with sticks or shouted at, but I don’t think she will ever completely trust human beings. We have had to leave the chain around her neck, because I cannot get close to her to cut it off while she is unsure about her new surroundings. However, the chain is loose and not attached anywhere so she can move around the room. When we move Safi to her new enclosure, we will anaesthetize her, remove the chain and check her damaged foot.

Please help sponsor the food for Safia and the construction of a spacious enclosure at the Centre - to donate, please click here and state you would like the funds to be put towards "Safia".