- 16 minutes ago
An enrichment walk with Lion Pride Echo and Naiobi takes an unexpected turn when an old friend visits, prompting Kevin Richardson, the Lion Whisperer, to reflect on the complexities of conservation. The encounter offers a closer look at the relationships and care involved in protecting wildlife, while opening a thoughtful conversation about how best to safeguard animals and wild spaces.
For viewers interested in lions, wildlife conservation, animal enrichment, and the work of the Kevin Richardson Wildlife Sanctuary, this nature video explores an emotive topic with care. Follow the pride’s walk and consider the challenges of protecting wildlife and their habitats.
For viewers interested in lions, wildlife conservation, animal enrichment, and the work of the Kevin Richardson Wildlife Sanctuary, this nature video explores an emotive topic with care. Follow the pride’s walk and consider the challenges of protecting wildlife and their habitats.
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00Head drubs
00:02Hello my kitty
00:11Look at that guys, there's a butterfly, there's Siam
00:16No ways
00:19Always when we go walking with niobe
00:30Alright, good morning everyone, today we're going to be taking Ekko and Niobe out for an enrichment walk
00:35And we're going to be tackling the thorny topic of hunting
00:40And I'm going to try and keep it simple
00:43And yeah, comment below if you agree with my logic
00:47Or if you disagree, or if you think I'm talking absolute trash
00:53But yeah, this is what it's all about
00:54It's about talking about these topics
00:56Trying to understand everything about them
01:00And then yeah, opening it up to debate
01:04And let's get everyone's thoughts on that
01:07But without further ado, let's take these two beautiful ladies out for a walk
01:12Look how excited they are
01:14Yeah my girlies
01:17Yeah
01:19Who wants to go walking?
01:22I do
01:24I do
01:27Ready?
01:28One
01:29Two
01:29Three
01:30Three
01:34The two grannies
01:36Going for a walk
01:44Okay
01:45This is all part of
01:49Enrichment
01:50It's all part of
01:50Stimulation
01:52Part of mental stimulation
01:55And physical exercise
01:58Prancing pony
02:00Niobe loves, loves, loves the walks
02:02Now these girls are getting on in age
02:06Niobe and Echo
02:08Tell the difference between the two
02:10Niobe is slightly stockier
02:13But she's also got the one eye that's been removed
02:17She had glaucoma
02:20And unfortunately
02:22The only option was to remove
02:24The eye
02:25Yeah, she's fed very very well
02:28And doing great
02:30Old as far as lions go
02:32They have lost
02:36Are you sneaking up on me?
02:40Old as far as lions go
02:42Old as far as lions go
02:42Old as far as lions go
02:42They have lost
02:44Condition
02:45So
02:46Yeah
02:47It's to be expected
02:49There's been
02:50Muscle atrophy
02:51As they get older
02:54And that's just
02:55Yeah, aging process
02:56I don't know
02:57Any
02:59elderly person
03:00Who
03:01Looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger
03:03Back in his heyday
03:07But that doesn't mean
03:08That they're not
03:10Able to
03:11You know
03:12Get up
03:13Get out and about
03:13And have
03:14An absolute
03:16Blast
03:17Which is
03:18The purpose
03:18Of these walks
03:26Normally when I walk
03:27The lions
03:28I try and
03:29Wear
03:30A piece of merch
03:33That
03:35Either they appear on
03:38Or that represents
03:39What they stand for
03:40This
03:41Is
03:41A
03:43Niobe tea
03:44From
03:46Teemil
03:47And there's a little butterfly
03:48There
03:48We call that the
03:50Siam butterfly
03:51That butterfly
03:52That butterfly
03:52Appeared
03:54And I got this photo
03:56After
03:57Siam
03:59The lion
03:59Passed away
04:00He was
04:01With this group
04:01He was the pride
04:02Male
04:03Of this group
04:05And what a
04:05What a pride male
04:07He was
04:07So
04:09After his passing
04:10We were going on a walk
04:11And this butterfly came
04:13Fluttering along
04:13And landed
04:15On
04:17Niobe's face
04:18And
04:19It just
04:19It just sat there
04:21And I said
04:22This has got to be
04:24Siam
04:25Siam's coming to say goodbye
04:27And so
04:28I took the snap
04:29And we made this tea
04:31And it's one of my favourites
04:33So
04:33If you
04:34Like what you see
04:36Go and check out
04:36Teemil
04:37Amazing company
04:38They are
04:40Really
04:41All about
04:43Sustainability
04:43And
04:44Recycling
04:46So
04:47They've got
04:48A
04:49A
04:49Division
04:50Called
04:50Remill
04:51Where they actually
04:52Remanufacture
04:54T-shirts
04:54Out of
04:56Reclaimed
04:58Tees
04:58And so
04:59You will
05:00Scan a barcode
05:01They will
05:02Courier the
05:03Old T-shirt
05:04To them
05:05They will then
05:06I don't know how they do it
05:07But they just kind of
05:08Mill it down
05:09And then
05:11Remanufacture
05:11A new T-shirt
05:12Out of
05:13That old cotton
05:14So
05:15Yeah
05:15The other
05:16Beautiful thing about
05:17This company is
05:19They will
05:19Only print to order
05:20So it's not like
05:22You know
05:22We mass produce T-shirts
05:24And then
05:25You know
05:2660-80% of them
05:27Land up in landfill
05:28Because no one buys them
05:29And because
05:30The sizing's all wrong
05:31This is
05:32Made to order
05:33You put in your
05:35Order
05:35You put in your sizes
05:36Gets manufactured
05:38Gets sent to you
05:39We've had such good
05:40Feedback on the quality
05:42The quality of the T-shirts
05:44And the quality of the print
05:45Is really good
05:47Come girl
05:48Yeah she comes
05:49Looking pretty
05:50This way
05:51Come
05:52Come
05:52Nabi
05:54Nabi
05:56Oh
05:58She's going her own way
05:59Come
06:00Good girl Echo
06:07Are we going to get through here
06:08Yeah
06:09That's right
06:10Yeah
06:11Yeah
06:11Yeah
06:12Yeah
06:23Take the high ground
06:35It's really sloshy
06:53It's really sloshy
06:55Look how funny
06:56She runs through the
06:57Water
06:59Or through the mud
07:00Slosh
07:01Slosh
07:02Slosh
07:02Slosh
07:32What's really apparent in
07:34The elderly lions
07:37Is that they start to lose
07:39The tautness in the Achilles tendon
07:42And the ligaments around the ankle
07:45And so as the muscle integrity
07:50Starts to deteriorate
07:51And they start to get
07:52More laxness in those ligaments
07:56And tendons
07:56They start to walk
07:58More flat footed
08:00You can see the heel
08:03Goes right towards the ground
08:05Now lions normally
08:07Will be walking
08:09What we call
08:11Digitty grade
08:12Or on the digits
08:14And humans walk planter grade
08:17Or on the whole foot
08:19Foot planted
08:21And as the lions get older
08:24I've noticed it with Meg
08:26Bongani
08:27He's a
08:28Yeah he's a case in point
08:30And these two girls
08:31Are also starting to walk
08:32Flat footed
08:34And
08:34Yeah it makes it
08:36A little bit more tricky
08:37For them to
08:37Run around
08:39They do tend to stumble
08:41A bit more
08:42But that's why these walks
08:44Are super super
08:45Important guys
08:47Because
08:47Yeah as we know
08:49Exercise
08:51Is
08:51A wondrous
08:53Thing
08:54Yeah these two girls
08:55Are always
08:56Ah jeez
08:57That is the Buffalo Thorn
08:59Wachabiki
09:00Wachabiki is Afrikaans
09:02For
09:02Wait a bit
09:04And that
09:05Is a
09:06It's called a Zizipus
09:09The
09:09Um
09:11The genus
09:13Scientific name
09:14And
09:16Also known as the Buffalo Thorn
09:18Wachabiki
09:18Wait a bit
09:19And
09:19The reason for that
09:21Is when you walk past it
09:22Makes you wait a bit
09:23Because it hooks onto you
09:24Okay
09:25Okay go down
09:26Let's go
09:30There we go
09:32Come down
09:33Yeah
09:33Yeah
09:35Okay
09:39Yeah
09:39Come
09:40Come sweetie
09:42Come beautiful
09:43Come
09:45Yeah
09:46That's it
09:47Come
09:47Come
09:48There we go
09:49Clever girl
09:50Clever girl
09:53Smart girl
09:54Come
09:54Let's go
09:55Come
09:56Let's go
09:58Let's go
09:59Come smart girl
10:03Let's go
10:04Let's go
10:04Oh
10:06Come
10:06Come
10:06She doesn't want to jump down there
10:10She's gonna go
10:11This way
10:13More towards
10:16I think this wall
10:18The water's still flowing strong
10:24Hello
10:24There we go
10:25That's easier
10:26That's better
10:27Come
10:29Or here
10:31Look here
10:32Look here
10:40It's so beautiful
10:42Exploring here
10:46This is so pretty
10:48Tranquil
10:51Okay
10:51She's gonna go up here
10:54A little bit wetter here
11:05There's some body rubs
11:08Always a sign of affection
11:11Head rubs
11:14Hello my gully
11:20She's such an affectionate cat
11:23Love her to bits
11:27Here
11:30Hello my gully
11:31Hello my gully
11:31Hello my gully
11:31Hello my gully
11:32Hello my gully
11:35Echo's also
11:37Been super affectionate today
11:40They're just so happy and grateful to be out and about
11:43They're just so happy and grateful to be out and about
11:58Come here
12:00Let's go
12:01Come here
12:03Here
12:09That's it, just jump, here, there we go, there we go, a bit of yoga going on here, for
12:27me, ah, look here, so this guys is little mud pools made by warthogs, hello my sweetie, you're
12:46gonna go and check out your cousins, hmm, okay, so while we're waiting for Echo to catch
12:56you up, um, let me tackle the topic that I would like to talk about today, of how do you
13:04control animal numbers in a relatively closed system, fenced in reserves, in other words,
13:12you, the animals are confined, it doesn't matter how big the area is, and I refer, let's talk
13:18about something that we're all familiar with, and that's Denneking, Denneking is the game
13:24reserve where the sanctuary is located, Denneking currently is about 19 and a half thousand
13:31hectares, and within that 19 and a half thousand hectares, it is completely contained, so there's
13:39a perimeter fence around that 19 and a half thousand hectares, and within the bounds of
13:44that, there is free roaming animals, big five, ah, by big five we mean, ah, elephant, leopard,
13:52lion, ah, we actually talk about, um, black rhino, um, when you talk about big five, um, and,
14:01um, what was the other one, buffalo, didn't mention buffalo, white rhino actually, for those
14:06of you who are really interested, are not, ah, actually one of the big five, white rhino,
14:12and the reason for that is the big five got their, got the name big five, because they
14:18were the, um, most dangerous five animals to hunt in Africa, buffalo, elephant, black rhino,
14:26lion, leopard, and hunters back in the day would classify those as the big five, because if you
14:34managed to hunt one of those, you were quite the man, and look at that guys, there's a butterfly,
14:40there's Siam, no ways, always when we go walking with Niobe, the monarch butterfly,
14:55I don't know if you can see that, I'm trying to track it with a GoPro,
15:30there's that butterfly right there, guys
15:32is that not incredible oh man I don't know what to make of that but hey it's following us around
15:44yeah make of it what you will I know some of you will be writing in and telling me
15:50some things but that's cool
15:53I'm here spoil your cat spoil your cat
16:13just put hunters and hunting and your feelings about them to one side and let's talk about closed ecosystems
16:20like we have here in Denneking then I'm going to give you two examples imagine you're on the board
16:28there's five of you on the board you're vehemently against obviously cruelty to animals but also
16:36against hunting and then you have four other fellow board members and you all have your different views
16:44on conservation and how to manage animals within these areas these confined areas now when you
16:52develop one of these game reserves there's a thing called a management plan and then the management
16:57plan just basically says how are you going to go about managing this this tract of land and all the
17:07inhabitants within it and then within that management plan is what's called a carrying capacity and the
17:16carrying capacity is basically the amount of animals different species of animals that can be contained
17:23within the reserve and the carrying capacity is obviously dependent on what kind of vegetation there
17:28is how many predators they are when you're talking about prey species and so forth and so forth and so
17:37forth
17:37and so the same would apply to lions so if you've got a an area of like say 19 and
17:44a half thousand hectares
17:45in Denneking we work out according to the vegetation how much prey can be housed and therefore
17:52what density of lion there should be per thousand hectares per hundred hectares per five thousand hectares
17:59and in the case of Denneking we look at one lion per thousand hectares which means you can have 19
18:05and a half
18:06lions so forget about half a lion you can have 19 lions as you can imagine if you've got a
18:13pride of one lion
18:14male and five lionesses female and each one of them has one litter of cubs and as we all know
18:25because
18:25we've been following line with spirit tv for a long time we know that a lion has around about four
18:31cubs in
18:32the litter so five fours are 20 plus your five lionesses that's 25 plus your male that's 26 in one
18:40file swoop
18:41you're already way over your carrying capacity and in a in a system like Denneking where there isn't much
18:49other competition in terms of other lions in the area because i've just mentioned one pride you can
18:54imagine the the mortality is not very great when it comes to the lion cubs like it would be in
19:01another
19:02system like the Kruger Park hello my darling scratches back scratches free back scratches there we go
19:11now you have a predicament so let's just park the lion problem for one second and let's talk about our
19:17lovely impalas so the impalas do very well we've had a season um of a lot of of rain um
19:25vegetation is
19:26really abundant the impalas think it's uh um they think it's a free for all and they just go nuts
19:33and
19:34every um every impala has a baby and now we've got all these millions of young impala running around
19:43the park but we don't have enough predators in the park to keep the balance in check so unfortunately
19:52it's now an unnatural situation where we've got too many impala and not enough lion to um keep
19:59those impala in balance with the with the vegetation and the ecosystem so then management needs to get
20:07around the table and we need to say right guys we have too many impala are carrying capacity according
20:13to our management plan that we submitted to the authorities that they're going to hold us
20:18accountable to we need to now take out of this system let's just say a hundred impala to keep it
20:28balanced and now the question arises as to how do we get rid of a hundred impala and now the
20:36debate
20:36starts because we've got five people and they all have something to say and the one person puts
20:40the hand up and says well i know what we we get a game capturer in and the game capturer
20:45comes in and
20:46we um sell a hundred impala to the guy down the road there i know he's looking for he's looking
20:52for 50
20:53and there's another guy um out in the another province somewhere he's looking for 50 so that's
20:58a hundred impala offloaded no problemo wash our hands of it we get x amount of rands per impala and
21:06we
21:06we're happy as larry and the other guy puts up his hand and he says well i'm not happy about
21:11that
21:11because i know that the guy who you um are moving those impala to is a hunting farm and i
21:17don't want
21:18those impala hunted i want them to go to a good home i want them to be impala that can
21:22live in the wild
21:23free as a bird for ever in a day so he has a problem with that so the next guy
21:29puts up his hand
21:30and he says well look i i think instead of selling them onto another farm only to be hunted
21:36why don't we just get hunters in um to to our farm and and we can let them hunt them
21:43and then we can
21:43take the meat and we can you sell the meat to the communities and we can therefore make revenue that
21:50way uh to support all the the things that we need to do ongoing in in the game reserve and
21:57the next guy
21:57puts up his hand he says no i'm not having anything to do with hunting going on in this park
22:01even
22:02though it was part of the management plan so so now we've got this uh this little complex situation
22:10we have infighting with it within the board and so now uh the the next guy puts up his hand
22:16he says no
22:17well if we can't um if we can't satisfy everyone's kind of needs then i think we just need to
22:24cull
22:24the hundred impala cull them and uh we can still take the meat and offload the meat to the the
22:31community so there's still some money coming into the reserve um and so forth and so forth so everyone
22:37comes up with their their management strategy as to how to effectively manage these surplus
22:43hundred impala and yeah they fight about it and they hate each other for it and they call each other
22:52names
22:52but at the end of the day 100 impala need to go okay in the case of the lion it
23:00becomes even more
23:01tricky because the lions are like these iconic animals and and everyone has a real soft spot for
23:08them and the impala seem to just be you know the the rats and mice of the park um yeah
23:15people go luck
23:16look look i don't i don't want to see them uh hurt so people have something to say but when
23:22it comes
23:22to the lion or the elephant um or the more iconic species then now there's a huge debate because the
23:30one guy puts up in his hand and he says look that old male lion you know we can get
23:34a lot of money for
23:35him um that money can go back to conservation he's sired young he's he's done his deed and so you
23:42know
23:42what's wrong with selling him for fifty thousand dollars and the next guy on the board gets up
23:47and says well if you selling lions do uh trophy hunting then i am out of here i'm resigning from
23:54the board and uh you know it becomes a and trust me i've sat on boards like this and then
24:00and then
24:00the next guy says no we we should rather humanely euthanize the male lion because that's the ethical
24:07thing to do and the other guy puts up his hand and he says yeah but if you if you
24:11euthanize the
24:12lion it's going to cost the game reserve money because we need to get the the vet out and then
24:17we're going to have to bury or or or destroy the body and that's going to cost us more money
24:22so so to effectively manage our population it's going to cost us money and uh yeah the next guy
24:29says well i think we should ethically cull the lion and the other guy says well i think we should
24:34sell
24:35the lion to a reserve where he can uh go and live out his life and the other person says
24:42well i
24:42think we should sell this lion or give this lion to a sanctuary and uh you know so every scenario
24:49guys has a problem the the overarching problem is is that they need to keep the reserve line numbers
24:58under 19 and the and the reason for it is if they just let these lines go and breed willy
25:04-nilly
25:04before they know it there's going to be 20 30 40 50 lions and these lines are going to be
25:10inbreeding
25:11with each other and there's going to be genetic issues because there is not a diversification of
25:17the genetics because there isn't any other lines within the reserve so they have that dilemma and
25:22they need to deal with it and whether they like it or not um it's there it's what they signed
25:28up for
25:28it's what the reserve signed up for you want to put big five in nineteen and a half thousand hectares
25:32you need to manage it yeah it's uh it's it's mind-boggling it's it's it's complicated and it's um
25:39emotive and uh before before anyone out there starts telling me that i'm pro uh trophy hunting
25:46or hunting it's not at all the case not at all i'm just looking pragmatically um at a whole system
25:54and
25:54saying to you guys out there come up with a solution let's see how do you manage these animals
26:00effectively within your budgetary needs and your moral um kind of high grounds like because you
26:09don't want to compromise on your ethics and so good luck because if i put 12 people in a room
26:15or 10
26:16people in a room and i ask you for your opinions on how you should manage this tract of land
26:20i'm going
26:21to get 12 different um ways of doing it um and i've been as i said working in this arena
26:29for 27 years
26:30and i've heard it all over and over again and the um people's the people or the the animal rightists
26:40who are really vehemently against any form of hunting fail to come up with a a solution that would
26:51totally quash the need for hunting ever again in these these closed systems my solution is not
26:58really a solution it's it's a part solution i think it's what my my foundation champions strongly for
27:06is uh expansion of of habitat obviously if we can grow this area to 50 000 hectares from 20 000
27:15hectares
27:16we can house that many more animals so we can kick that can down the road so to speak um
27:22so that we
27:23can house more lions we can house more elephants we can house more buffalo etc etc etc but when it's
27:29a
27:29closed system we eventually are still going to get to that point where you're going to have to make a
27:34call and manage the animals food for thought guys let me know what you think um don't write in the
27:40comments that i'm a pro trophy hunting or hunter it's not the case at all i want practical solutions
27:47we're going to take a little park off here now i think let's have a little a little rest
28:06right right so the walk has come to a natural conclusion uh echo and now obi
28:18are chilling under the tree we're in the shade of a tree waiting again for uber uber's george
28:28yawn yawn time to go home guys and so i think that's where we're going to leave the walk i
28:35hope
28:35you enjoyed that um a good think piece i think uh lots of food to chew on um and as
28:43i've said before
28:44let's uh debate this let's not get ugly let's not uh finger point let's um talk about it and let's
28:51see what your thoughts are what is the solution to closed systems and um don't come with the the
28:59solution to close systems is not to have them because i think uh at the end of the day it's
29:04better to have them than not have them but as i've said it does come with a certain amount of
29:09complexities and responsibilities so yeah guys i hope you enjoyed that video with the two beautiful
29:16ladies echo and niobe it's always such fun going on a walk with them they are just we're so well
29:23behaved um they said they're such ladies and um i really thoroughly enjoy it so i hope you did too
29:30if you did please do like and share first time coming across the channel and you're not subscribed
29:34please do subscribe it really does help uh spread the message uh grow the channel um and yeah or in
29:42more ways than you would imagine so yeah thanks for that and then i would be amiss not to give
29:47a bit
29:47of a shout out to the members and pride leaders those are the the guys who support the channel in
29:55a
29:55financial way and help us um you know help us uh continue to bring you guys out there the core
30:02um the free content so yeah massive shout out to to members and if you want to go and check
30:08out members
30:08the link will be in the description below uh so once again thanks guys from me kevin
30:14and uh echo and niobe until next time bye
30:21you
30:44you