- 14 minutes ago
A rare lion walk turns into a moving look at personality, age, and trust as Suja and Bongani head out together and make their way across the enclosure. Suja is unusually eager to load first, while Bongani follows in his confident, steady way, rubbing, marking, and exploring as they go. Along the walk, Kevin Richardson reflects on Bongani’s recovery from feline infectious peritonitis, Suja’s nervous temperament, and how each lion responds differently to handling, space, and companionship.
The video blends wildlife commentary, lion behavior observation, and sanctuary life, with a close look at older male lions in a managed conservation setting. It also captures the tension and patience involved in working with big cats that only cooperate when they choose to, especially when Suja spots Meg and freezes in place. Fans of lion documentaries, animal behavior videos, wildlife rescue stories, and behind-the-scenes sanctuary footage will find plenty to follow here.
Created for viewers searching for lion walk videos, big cat behavior, wildlife commentary, animal sanctuary content, and Kevin Richardson’s lion videos. It also fits searches for wildlife documentary-style narration, African lion conservation, and calm, observational animal footage with real insight into lion personalities.
The video blends wildlife commentary, lion behavior observation, and sanctuary life, with a close look at older male lions in a managed conservation setting. It also captures the tension and patience involved in working with big cats that only cooperate when they choose to, especially when Suja spots Meg and freezes in place. Fans of lion documentaries, animal behavior videos, wildlife rescue stories, and behind-the-scenes sanctuary footage will find plenty to follow here.
Created for viewers searching for lion walk videos, big cat behavior, wildlife commentary, animal sanctuary content, and Kevin Richardson’s lion videos. It also fits searches for wildlife documentary-style narration, African lion conservation, and calm, observational animal footage with real insight into lion personalities.
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00have you got eyes for Meg? hey look at that he's come here and he is not moving
00:08and there she is the lady of the house we should just appreciate every day
00:18that we have with this beautiful cat look at that alertness this lion does not let his guard down
00:25for one moment look at his eyes they are locked on Meg all right guys so one thing I forgot
00:31to
00:31mention is that this entire walk depends on whether Suja wants to load or not so Suja is a
00:38real character and he's got to be in the mood to do to do a lot of things Bongani is
00:45always keen on
00:46doing most things so he's not a problem but Suja is quite the introvert so we'll get to know a
00:52little
00:52bit more about Suja in a while but hopefully Suja is not in one of his full of um full
01:03of
01:03I don't want to use the word but full of bull hopefully Suja isn't in one of his full of
01:09bull
01:09moods and he plays ball so all right so we have arrived at the boys and he looks like he's
01:19in the
01:19mood so let's wait and see um George are we going to try and go in or just park here
01:26you think parking
01:28here he might come okay then I'll just move them away or I'll try them now okay there's two ways
01:37of
01:37loading Suji and Bongani one is hello oh hello boy yeah oh yeah okay the first way is the conventional
01:47way
01:47which is by the gate which is by the gate and the other way is to actually drive the vehicle
01:53into the enclosure so we can try either way um I think either way is going to work today hello
02:03my boy
02:11okay okay let's find like that that's hard
02:16uh look yeah I'll go yeah
02:22okay thanks Suji yeah yeah yeah yeah boy oh yeah
02:46uh
02:46uh
02:47uh
02:47uh
02:47uh
02:58so two ways to load in the loading cage one is through the back door the others through
03:04the front door I might try both but yeah he's really in a fantastic mood today and we'll
03:13get to why that may very well be come come come come come come come whoa okay in you go
03:36in you go
03:41oh my hat Suju is the first in this has got to be a miracle here Bongani yeah Suju this
03:52got to be a miracle yeah yeah okay so we're gonna load yeah Suji Suji
04:27oh yeah boy yeah Suji yeah yeah yeah all right so
04:45always a brilliant sign is when Suji by his own volition gets up from wherever he's sitting
04:58and comes to load so very happy about that I think I will get to why when we get to
05:12the big
05:12enclosure and go for the walk because I just want to get them there as quick as possible offload them
05:19and then let them go on their enrichment walk and then we can talk to our hearts content so stand
05:24by
05:27wow wow wow wow what can I say Suji Suji Suji Suji is in top form and raring to go
05:37I think that is the first time
05:38in years that Suji has got into the vehicle before Bongani he normally takes his lead from Bongani
05:45and that is always a fear of mine you know for when one day Bongani is no longer
05:56Suja living on his own potentially we have tried to put him with Meg and Amy before but perhaps
06:03if that did occur it might be a good idea to put Suja with with Meg but yeah that will
06:10cross that
06:10bridge if and when we come to it the thing that I was trying to get at is that Suja
06:16is really
06:17dependent on a pride mate so he definitely needs companionship I remember when Bongani was at the
06:28vet for what seemed like months but it probably was about four to five weeks and we'll get to
06:35Bongani's disease that he has but when Bongani was at the vet Suja was on his own and he was
06:44an
06:45absolutely different animal he was so nervous so timid and he would not come up he would not come
06:54up for anyone or anything and it is a worry that when these animals start to pass on and we
07:03are
07:03left with no more twos but ones like we have in the case of Meg the the real hard part
07:12is to know
07:12what to do so yeah interesting times lie ahead but yeah especially so with animals like Suja
07:26yeah just don't know you can go right here or in fact drop us by the dam yeah
07:35just gonna take Bongani and Suja and drop them by the dam and then they can do what they want
07:43from there
08:16yeah I think just turn in yeah so I can let them go that way
08:22awesome
08:27all right so we've arrived at the location where we're going to let them out and let them go and
08:32wander it's pretty central so yeah now it's up to them as to what they want to do so it's
08:38their walk hello big boy
08:54oh Bongani that's not a very graceful dismount my boy
09:00and like that they're off
09:04who to follow I don't know do I follow Suja or Bongani maybe Bongani
09:15Suja's off in his own direction Bongani doing what a confident male lion would be doing
09:22is rubbing is rubbing on the trees and marking his territory and listening and looking hey big boy oh
09:33so there's a lot on their minds other than Kevin so certainly for the first part of the walk
09:43you'll notice that and another and another uh misplacement of the foot for Bongani but certainly
09:52for the first part of the walk these lions will be very interested in what's out here it's set off
10:01on a
10:02hectic pace
10:06certainly going to get my steps in today
10:09Bongani is a over 16 year old male lion
10:1416 you heard me right so he is getting on in age and so 16 is a good innings for
10:23a lion anyway in captivity
10:27lions can live past 20 but most of the time at about 20 you're going to start to see
10:36old age effects like renal failure um liver disorders um different other forms of diseases like leukemia
10:49those kind of things can can take their toll on aged lions so Bongani is a would be considered an
10:57old lion
10:58and the interesting thing too about Bongani is that about two years ago
11:06Bongani became very lethargic uh started stopped eating uh and and in a very short space of time
11:14his condition deteriorated to the point um but so quickly it was we kind of called the vet on the
11:22the Monday or the Tuesday and by the Thursday when when he eventually could come out um the the condition
11:30had deteriorated quite rapidly and sunken eyes dehydration anemia all of these the fur very um matty
11:40um you know not very well groomed and and not healthy and not oily like like a normal lion's
11:46hair is so all these signs and uh obviously the the big one is obviously is is not eating so
11:54and and lethargy
11:55so here he comes down to at the river he's making good progress
12:10all right so just up ahead okay so very quickly we got the vet out and
12:19um he was in a condition whereby the vet said this is dr coldwell by the way you all know
12:25of um and dr
12:27coldwell said okay i'm gonna i'm gonna take him and i'm gonna check him in and so that's what he
12:32did
12:32and so when we we got the blood results back it was uh shown that um bongani had coronavirus um
12:43f-e-c-o-v so
12:44a feline coronavirus and so everyone knows about coronavirus nowadays because of covert 19 and the
12:52world literally been in lockdown as a result it's been really really uh infectious um and it actually
13:02in many cases been a disease that um can really make a impact on on uh aged people so in
13:12the case
13:12of a lion uh with coronavirus obviously that was a bit of a worry lions um seem to live with
13:19f-e-c-o-v it's
13:21a different it's a different strain to the one that we um are getting in humans and they seem to
13:28live
13:28with it quite fine until such a time as there's a compromised immune system and when that occurs uh
13:36it can mutate into something known as feline infectious peritonitis and that is what bongani
13:44was diagnosed with and for for those who know about FIP in cats it's a deadly deadly disease so
13:54um it it spells the death of that animal it's a dead sentence ah leading me through the horrible part
14:01here all right so bongani was diagnosed with FIP it was shocking and heart-wrenching and kind of like
14:15we're thinking how on earth do we um how do we carry on so i suppose the the uh answer
14:25to that question
14:26was in the form of palliative treatment uh in other words supportive treatment just uh lots of good
14:34health care good vitamins minerals uh antibiotics to fight infection etc etc some steroids as well so
14:42uh straight away bongani was put on that he was kept at the vet for what seemed like an eternity
14:50but i
14:50think it was in the region of five to six weeks um i would visit him regularly and progressively we
14:59saw
15:00a a positive change in bongani and to the point where now i think it's two years on that's
15:09what we're looking at so 16 year old lion um who's picked up weight again his hair and skin is
15:17looking
15:17great he has energy he has attitude and bongani's always had attitude so you know you would know that
15:27something's wrong with bongani if he didn't come up for um for some love or if uh he just sat
15:35there in the
15:35enclosure and didn't respond to your calls you would know that something's wrong with bongani anyway over
15:41a period of time bongani seemed to get better to the point where dr coldwell said okay well kev take
15:48him back to your facility he's better off there than than just staying at the vet and continue with
15:54this treatment which we continue to do so lo and behold he came back and just over time got stronger
16:02and
16:02stronger and stronger to the point where bongani is the bongani where um who we know today a lot of
16:10people have been asking why don't i um do many videos with suji and bongani and the reason being is
16:21that
16:21certain videos require certain types of animal so suju has to be in the right mood so if i'm going
16:30to be
16:30doing a video on a particular week about let's say smell in lions and i just know that suju is
16:38not going
16:38to partake then i i i'm not going to use suju um and and unfortunately them bongani doesn't come along
16:47for the ride either it's not to say that bongani and suju don't get the same treatment guys um they
16:53just
16:54don't appear on video as much as the other lions but that's okay we still love them the same thanks
17:00for leading me through the thorn bush bongani so we still love them the same and they still get the
17:08same treatment um so don't worry about that as bongani enjoys his rub in the in the poo poo or
17:17urine or some
17:18smell that i don't know and and uh suji comes up to see what he's doing and why he's having
17:24such fun
17:25hello boy yeah oh there it is there it is my boys enjoy whilst out very nice
17:41yes oh oh it doesn't want to share bongani you see confident and cocky bongani no wonder suju is so
17:49insecure hey sure don't be grumpy bongani
18:13so bongani um having been diagnosed with feline infectious peritonitis
18:19was literally on death's door and so um i was told that i should just you know start to prepare
18:30for the worst that bongani might not be with us in a few months time and that we should just
18:36uh
18:37appreciate every day um that we have with this beautiful cat and and shouldn't that be the case
18:46anyway all the all the time you know why why should we appreciate bongani any less or more because he
18:56has or has not got a disease so anyway that's the theory behind looking after bongani and all the
19:04other animals uh we should love them every day um and treat them as if it's their last day every
19:09day
19:10but isn't it human nature not to do that we kind of take for granted that these animals are always
19:15going to be here and uh we're going to wake up the next day and it's all going to be
19:19okay
19:19so as the months ticked by guys bongani just got stronger and stronger all right so bongani we
19:27haven't even touched on bongani's personality so bongani bongani bongani what a what a lion he's
19:34always had a very um consistent temperament which is is nice it's nice to know that a lion is consistent
19:44in temperament and he's leading me through all of this tall grass which i hate because it's always
19:49got ticks hanging on the tips of the edges of the of the the seed part of the grass and
19:57clever the
19:58ticks they do that so that when the animals walk by um at the that height they just kind of
20:04let go and latch
20:06onto the animal and the animal in this case been been me i don't want ticks so as i walk
20:12blind
20:14through this grass trying to catch up with bong bongani try and talk a little bit more about his
20:22personality confident is the word that comes to mind so consistent but confident so bongani will always
20:33jump into the vehicle if bongani doesn't jump into the vehicle you know that there's something
20:40probably wrong with bongani the same thing with bongani jumping or going into the the night pen
20:49bongani not going into the night pen probably means there's something not quite right with bongani so
20:54he's a very confident cat he normally leads the way um suji definitely lagging behind at the moment
21:03gonna let suji pass go big boy look how he is very cautious and then runs by
21:12just in case kevin does something to him and now he's gonna run run run run run run to catch
21:17up to bongani
21:18there he goes he's running to catch up to bongani and that is just the typical scenario bongani in the
21:25lead
21:26suji second that's why this morning it was very very interesting to see bongani get in suji get in
21:34first and bongani second so that was really incredible um yeah very confident lion very uh
21:42normally he's he's led a very healthy life he he's not always getting into trouble he's not always fighting
21:47he's not overly aggressive he but he's you know he he stands his ground so he's a he's a cool
21:55cat
22:13fellow boy and there he's enjoying rolling in some poo poo oh hello boy
22:21do not disturb me Kev I am rolling
22:39okay we've reached the end of our destination here
22:45can't go any further so I think it's high time I start to talk about Suji so Suji has come
22:59to this fence and he has seen on the other side of the fence a gorgeous lion called Meg
23:09Meg lion so this is the lion that we tried to matchmake with Suji quite a while ago and that
23:20just didn't work out so he is very familiar with with Meg I think he's terrified of her secretly
23:27but anyway we might we might still have to matchmake in the the month years to come you're
23:35tired my boy hey he's very tired panting away okay so Suji in an environment like what we
23:52have just experienced now so in an environment that we've experienced like now Suji is is quite a
24:19nervous cat so he is highly reactive to situations and this can in turn stress him out and when when
24:32Suji gets stressed there's no ways you're going to get him to do anything so if Suji doesn't want to
24:39do something there's no ways you're going to get Suji to do it that's just simple that's the simple
24:46truth Suji does things only because he wants to do them and that for me is a wonderful side to
24:52Suji
24:53the hard part about that is that Suji can make life very difficult for us at the sanctuary because
25:03often when it's feeding and Suji doesn't want to go into the feeding area because he's just full of
25:14bull then that's it you've got to feed Suji outside and obviously once you feed him outside that's a
25:21that brings about a whole set of other complications because at some point in time you're going to have
25:26to put him away so that you can clean inside the enclosure so it just kind of can spiral out
25:34of control
25:35if he starts to get into this bad habit of of not going in apart from that how old is
25:49Suji? Suji is also
25:50coming up 16 not quite 16 but almost there I think his birthday is in June so look at that
25:59for a 16 year old
26:00lion Suji has never as far as I know or can remember had any health issues his that part there
26:10in his body
26:10I wanted to talk about because look at his buttocks he still has incredible butt cheeks never thought I'd be
26:19saying that about a lion but Suji has really beautiful butt cheeks his gluteus maximus is muah so he's got
26:27good
26:28hamstrings he's got good muscle tone and he is a lean machine he's a black mane lion slightly darker than
26:40Bongani but despite his blackness and and and I'm telling you that he's on a par with with bobcat so
26:49we know bobcat's a testosterone filled you know man's man kind of lion there's no nothing that bobcat won't
26:57go and check out you know so although he's probably in some respects even darker than bobcat he's nowhere near
27:04as confrontational as bobcat no ways Suji is a gentleman in some respects but he's also he's also
27:14a bit of an introvert he's I'm not going to say he's a coward but he's he's a a scary
27:22cat I think is
27:23the best way to put his personality and if you if you want to play on that and if you
27:32want to provoke
27:34that side of him and if you want to push him then you need to you need to deal with
27:41the fact that this
27:42lion then can become very very dangerous because of that nervousness and the reaction to the nervous
27:53is aggression so it's like I'm going to go or stay away from me not because I'm this big ferocious
28:02lion trying to intimidate you but because I'm actually scared and that that is something that a
28:07lot of people don't get about Suji you know they're going to go hey Suji why are you being so
28:13aggro
28:14and I'm going no no no Suji's scared so please just back away out of his space he's very alert
28:23look at
28:24that alertness this lion does not let his guard down for one moment look at his eyes they are locked
28:30on
28:30Meg whereas Bongani doesn't really care he knows that there's nothing untoward going to happen here you
28:36look at your tongue you see what happened to your tongue that is uh purely being a foolish boy he's
28:42ripped his tongue this is what happens when these cats get to this age there's always some little
28:47issue so he's got a ripped tongue and Bongani is missing a canine tooth there's a little bit of
28:52information about them so how do you know we're talking about Bongani oh we're going to get some roaring let's
28:58see
28:58growl
29:00growl
29:33oh I was really hoping you'd give me a nice roar there boy
29:40nothing hmm nothing he's just loving life
29:49so now after a period of walking here for some time he's really become a lot more comfortable
29:57and confident in his behavior so he's not he's not as nervous as he was when he first was let
30:05out
30:07so you can imagine with a lion like Suja getting out into this big area he the heart's pumping the
30:13adrenaline's going the mind's in overdrive he's just his only instinct is to run in one direction
30:21then what happens with Suja is he goes whoa wait a minute this is this is not bad there's nothing
30:27chasing me I'm not I'm not in any danger I'm not I'm not being threatened oh this is pretty cool
30:34all of the adrenaline and all of the that subsides and then he starts to calm down get a bit
30:40more
30:40relaxed then he comes across some smells like the the poop and then he has the roll around and he
30:47then
30:47he then he has this dopamine effect and then you can see his like spirit lift and he becomes more
30:53bouncy and happy and energetic and that's really cool to see because then he he's like a little
30:59he's like a little spring chicken and we love that about him he's very tired now he's been
31:06walking this enclosure flat but you know it's so cool to see Suja having fun and Bongani also having fun
31:16obviously in his own way um what else can I say about Suja um yeah you learn to work with
31:23him every lion
31:25like with people you're gonna you're gonna go through life meeting people and you know sometimes
31:32you just connect with someone sometimes you don't so you know like with with with with uh animals as
31:39well some dogs you just resonate with some cats you just resonate with so if you can imagine all the
31:44lions I've worked with uh during the course of my life naturally there's some lions who who's my
31:51person that who my personality resonates with their personality resonates with me my personality resonates
31:57with them we find it a lot easier to connect and to bond now Suja I've had to learn that
32:05he doesn't
32:06respond like um like a bobcat or like a vietzi or um or any or thor or charlie or any
32:16one of those lions
32:16he reacts and I'm talking about the males he reacts more nervously and more cautiously have you got eyes
32:22for meg hey look at that he's come here and he is not moving and there she is the lady
32:33of the house
32:34the house hey Suji hey big boy okay should we go oh let's go okay good let's go come
33:03there's not many characters like Suja he is really really a character so I love him to bits um yeah
33:12he's
33:13he's just one of those individuals you either love him or hate him many people are like they don't
33:18resonate with Suja because of of his nervousness but you know I don't see that as has been a negative
33:25um he's certainly he's certainly been a nice character throughout his um existence and throughout
33:33our um relationship together so yeah Bongani yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah Bongani yeah yeah
33:46okay this is the area where I want to put them um after so we'll see what what transpires
33:55try and get Georgie to come here George won't you come back to the main enclosure the big enclosure
34:05um he's walking down the road but I'd like to try and get them back in here while they're here
34:10okay okay here comes the car hello boys yes you're not going to walk away now hey
34:23they say Kev we are not going home sorry buddy we are just getting started oh listen if you're good
34:33boys
34:33we'll do this again tomorrow if you're naughty boys then we won't ha Bongani
34:48yeah you're gonna have to come down this road George there I was just walking slowly okay completed
35:04what an awesome sighting see those two if you saw those guys
35:10in the wilderness area you'd be most impressed
35:17look at Bongani you can see guys a little bit of instability in his foot I think that's one of
35:25the
35:27after effects of his disease
35:34the habilitation okay oh all right let's see
35:46okay let him stop there he's going to just roll in some poo while he rolls in some poo
36:09yeah
36:10yeah
36:11suji suji
36:18yeah
36:42don't take it
36:46yeah
36:50yeah
36:54yeah
36:55yeah
37:15all right so just exhibiting a little bit of patience here for these two boys they are very
37:27tired and thirsty and therefore don't really have an appetite so you've got to give them about 10-15
37:32minutes to cool down and then they might want to eat and load
37:40yeah
37:43come away
37:46yeah
37:48switch
38:19yeah yeah yeah
38:21yeah
38:22yeah
38:55mind your tail
38:59slowly does it because no mind my hand
39:07you don't want to you don't want to slam the gate
39:11in Suji's face because that's a surefire way to make this cat never load again
39:18you want to make this experience the most awesome
39:25time of this lion's life because then yeah yeah yeah Suji the more experiences like that he has
39:37Bongani he just looks so tired
39:41he doesn't even want to eat he's just so tired
39:47big boys she's just so tired so you see what's so funny with Bongani is when he's had enough
39:51he gets in on his own accord and it's not because of the food he gets in because he's tired
39:57and then
39:58he sits there and waits he's so good what can I say obviously Suji requires a little bit more uh
40:06effort
40:07but even Suje is a good boy and today has been an exceptional boy hey George yeah yeah he's been
40:16amazing so there we go my my right hand as usual George helping me as we give these lions
40:28something to look forward to in life no one has as much experience as George working with me he's
40:38worked with me for gosh I don't know must be 12 years or so now knows the animals inside out
40:48so yeah when I do walks like this with these lions then George is the guy guys just like to
40:58take this
40:58opportunity to thank you all for watching and for those of you who are subscribed to the channel
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41:20the team who helps support this place in this mission so without your support I mean I can
41:26never do these videos and do what I do so thank you thank you thank you to you guys
41:29and yeah tune in for more until next time I hope you have a great day and bye
41:43bye
41:52you