The Work of Born Free and Lions

The Born Free Foundation (BFF) was set up in 1984 by Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna. They first became involved with big cats when they travelled to Kenya in 1964 to star in the film Born Free. The film was based on the book by Joy Adamson, and tells the story of Joy and her husband George’s fight to return a lioness ‘Elsa’ to the wild. The Adamson’s story was a huge hit and helped shape generations opinions about lions and their right to be free.

Virginia and her husband Bill were profoundly affected by the experience, and this consequently led to their life’s work of keeping wildlife in the wild. In the late 1960s they helped Christian the lion back to freedom when he was bought by a couple from Harrods London.
Since this time the BFF have helped marine animals, bears, wolves, elephants and many others.

When I looked closer into the work of BFF I was shocked and saddened to find that the African lions have declined in number by 70% over the last 30 years. There are only around 25,000 lions left in the whole of the continent! In the year 1900 there were approximately 500,000. As a conservationist said recently on TV ‘I can’t imagine Africa without lions. It is unacceptable; it’s like the sun not coming up in the morning.’

The hunting grounds have become depleted due to the growth of agriculture and settlement and lions and prey animals have been poisoned, snared and shot. It is still legal to shoot lions for ‘sport’ and many lions are legally killed every year. Born Free is determined to develop practical strategies to allow lions and farmers to co-exist without conflict and to fight trophy hunting.

The BFF rescue lions from various forms of exploitative captivity and provide sanctuary in safe game reserve areas.

For more information and ideas of how you can become involved click the link below. Also find out more about the moving and uplifting story of Christian the lion.

http://www.bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/big-cats/about/

George Adamson was killed by poachers
in 1989 saving the life of a tourist.

Tomorrow - Lion gallery