00:04Look how content that cat is. Yame is.
00:09Hey! Don't do that! Crazy cat hugging weeds.
00:15Good morning, good morning, good morning guys.
00:17Today I'm going to be taking George and Yame out for a birthday walk.
00:22Hello boys!
00:24Turning 12. I can't believe I'm saying that.
00:27At 12 years of age, they really have transformed from cubs to kings.
00:45Hello, yum-yum.
00:47Who's my boy?
00:51Okay, let's go.
00:54What a thank you.
00:55Happy birthday big boy.
01:02I think Yame is smelling the chicken.
01:08I had some chicken.
01:10And he's going, where is mine?
01:14Kev, where is my chicken?
01:18George is having a lovely little sniff around.
01:24Yame is having a nice little scratch.
01:32Come boys, let's go.
01:34Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
01:42Oh, oh, oh, oh.
02:09Super happy these guys.
02:12And you wouldn't say...
02:15You wouldn't say...
02:18There are 12. It's crazy.
02:26Such energy.
02:30Full of vigor.
02:31Here we go.
02:44This lion is nuts.
02:47It's gone crazy.
02:48Here he is there.
02:53Oh, oh, oh, oh.
03:11the flop down
03:16I'm very glad that I decided
03:32oh I'm super glad that I decided not to bring the bigger rig so I brought the
03:39the bigger rig along because I like bringing you guys awesome footage but
03:49yeah the this is giving him a wide berth
03:59they get a little bit possessive so Yama gets quite possessive over poo and
04:07smells and stuff like that whereas George is not as bad he just gets super
04:11excited but yeah so I brought the bigger rig along and then I decided wisely I
04:21think not to use it because these two can be quite boisterous and it generally
04:28lands up meaning that something gets broken normally the camera
04:38you're very vocal this morning my boy yeah you got a lot of energy hey looking
04:44forward to your walk yeah massive thanks to all of you who commented in one of the
04:52preceding videos about whether you notice a difference
05:00hey don't do that oh oh oh what is this problem hey oh Georgie no hey come
05:23come on boy yeah yum yum come on boy oh my boy he's so horrible hey horrible to you my
05:39boy hey
05:40sorry my boy just ignore him yes he can be horrible hey George's possessiveness
05:54George hates getting frights so you know Yama running up on him like that his
06:03natural form of defense is offense and yeah I think it's personally I think it's
06:12because his vision is not that great and we'll get into that what happened to
06:19these two when they were younger it's a story certainly worth repeating for those
06:28of you who are new to the channel and haven't heard me talk about George and Yama
06:34these two beautiful male lions and why they are here why are we walking etc etc so let
06:46me just finish off with what I was saying before George rudely interrupted was many
06:53thanks to all of you who commented about the video quality I was asking the question do you
07:03guys really see a difference or notice a difference when I take the bigger rig out with the
07:11stabilization it's the SL I beg your pardon the mirrorless digital camera do you notice a
07:20difference when I use that versus the GoPro and yeah the GoPro is really really light super easy to
07:29maneuver I can keep up with the lines no problem without painting in your ear and yeah I
07:39think the GoPro does give beautiful footage it's just you don't get that depth of field and and the
07:49punch in that you would get with the Ronin rig so there is a quality difference I can see it
07:59guys
07:59and I'm sure if you you know put the video side by side you would also notice it
08:07um but it does make my life a lot easier just being able to walk around with a GoPro
08:11and not have to hassle with the bigger rig most of you said you're just happy with a GoPro some
08:20of
08:21you said you notice the quality so that was lovely but the majority of you were saying that you just
08:28want to see the videos of the lines and that you don't care how I bring it to you and
08:34whatever's
08:35easiest and they really are worried you as the audience are worried about my health um and uh so
08:44yeah I'm gonna mix it up a bit but anyway um thanks for that and uh yeah it's just interesting
08:53we
08:53kind of as filmmakers are always wanting to bring you these very dynamic shots and sometimes I think
09:02when there's a lot going on in a video or people just want to know about the lines they don't
09:07really
09:07care it's just all about it's all about the content so now um is that because look at him rolling
09:17is that
09:18because we have been kind of over burdened with all this content out there that we just don't really
09:29care about quality anymore there's a question for you guys is do you think it's the reason
09:36that content is more important than quality so what's happening in camera is much more important than
09:45how it's filmed I think that's a topic worth exploring
10:08listen when he comes running up you mustn't get all excited mr georgia hey happy birthday you old man
10:30oh my boy oh oh oh he does not like me to lead him he wants to be the leader
10:50oh come
11:07oh
11:17slowly my boy don't want to sneak up look at how he looks see his face okay
11:23wait wait wait I don't want you guys being like that
11:43do you see how he wants to always be the leader George is a leader so who who are
11:58George and Yame they originate from France so somewhere along the line they
12:07were born in France and I believe it was in a circus and then they were actually
12:17smuggled to Spain where they landed up in this facility which is like a theme
12:26park called Teramitika and they were being passed around for photo opportunities
12:37people would pay to pet basically five euro a pop have your photo taken with
12:44George and Yame and George and Yame were very small at that point in time and they
12:50were probably about two months of age being fed a watered-down cow's milk diet
12:57which is not very nutritious for a carnivore and as a result they they
13:06developed issues George developed metabolic bone disease his bones were
13:12fracturing left right and center he had juvenile cataracts and in fact George
13:17suffered the consequences of malnutrition far worse than Yame
13:21Yame tended to weather that storm a lot better he's a quite a resilient boy and
13:33that's just you know the lack of the draw in in terms of their their genes but over
13:41here in South Africa a lady who was part of a organization at that time called the
13:48campaign against canned hunting she came across this Facebook post and that
13:55obviously intrigued her she did some more research and found out that these
14:00lines were at this theme park and she contacted colleagues in Spain who did some
14:10more digging and they found out that the lines had no permits and therefore
14:17they were confiscated by the Spanish authorities and they were put in this
14:23sanctuary where they were looked after and there in came CJ and Lewis and CJ
14:34Munoz who subsequently passed away nice nice lady and Lewis they kind of adopted George and Yame they
14:47paid for you know all the the veterinary intervention their food etc but then the
14:54big hunt was on to find George and Yame a home a home in South Africa because
15:01that's what people think it's a African lion it must come back to South Africa
15:06although you know nowadays I say we don't even know how African these lines
15:15actually are because the amount of generations that have gone by that these
15:20cats have been in circuses or you know where did they even come from originally
15:24was it North Africa Morocco who knows so yeah genetically we don't really know where
15:36George and Yame's origins are but the other interesting thing is oh it's worth noting
15:43that George and Yame are not my lions by the way I'm merely a guardian and actually I came
15:51across the paperwork at the other day where George and Yame were basically
15:57entrusted to me by the Spanish authorities but they are actually still owned by the
16:06Spanish authorities so yeah
16:08Hello my boy what you say what you say hey what you say am I talking about you keeps on
16:17smelling the chicken grimace there we go it's the full on grimace the yummy grimace yeah so I got a
16:32call
16:34from a lady named Bev who I'm not even sure if they were married but Chris Mercer was also he
16:44had
16:44started this campaign against canned hunting organization obviously as the name suggests that
16:51was started to campaign against canned lion hunting and I had met them a year or two earlier and
17:03you know had explained why I do what I do you know giving the lines a decent quality of life
17:10and the the the
17:13relationship enables me to do that otherwise there would just be lions in cages and Bev was really adamant that
17:23George and Yame came here because she felt that that was going to give these two lions the best
17:29quality of life that they could possibly have in a captive situation so I got called by them and I
17:39said no
17:39I said no I'm not into or interested in having more lions and yeah that was that for about a
17:50day or two and then
17:52Bev was very very persistent and I started getting
17:58messages with videos and photographs of these two little cubs and
18:06yeah eventually she wore me down and I said okay look yeah we can make a plan for these two
18:15and
18:17that obviously set the wheels in motion for George and Yame's arrival in late 2014 they arrived here at the
18:28sanctuary
18:30two bundles of joy except they were super stressed out especially
18:36little old George who had rubbed his face raw on the crate on the trip from
18:44Spain to South Africa so a shame when he arrived he
18:49he uh yeah didn't look wonderful but uh they
18:55they definitely adapted to their new home pretty quickly now it's my turn to be sniffed by Georgie
19:16hey there's Yame by Etsy and Duba people hardly get to see Duba
19:32anyway they settled in very quickly um and
19:38yeah the routinized walking started so I really started walking George and Yame
19:45out in the open since they were six seven months old
19:50um and they've been doing it ever since and they're now 12 so as you can imagine it's not just
19:57releasing George and Yame into the wide open and hoping for the best this has been 12 years of
20:07you know solid input and regular walks and consistent application and consistent
20:16love and care and trust trust that's been formed and forged over a long long period of time so
20:24you know when people see the relationship with George and Yame it isn't just a man
20:29and it's definitely not AR
20:32but it's certainly not a man that's just walked into a lion camp and decided he's going to befriend
20:37two lions this is 12 or 11 and a half years if you want to be completely accurate and 11
20:45and a half
20:46years of constant care love and input that results in two lions that are pretty comfortable and confident
20:53to go walking out in the bush look how content they are if that isn't evidence that these two lions
21:03have had
21:04an amazing time then i have no idea what is say goodbye georgie yeah he's become a horrible cat
21:15we'll give you regular updates i hope you enjoyed watching that um that's kevin and george signing
21:21off for lion whisperer tv and please go ahead and subscribe thank you cheers guys
21:51you
