UNITED KINGDOM / SOUTH AFRICA: Lion cub Samira paddles back to health

Lion cub paddles back to health. In the wild almost four out of five lion cubs die before they are 2 years old - often as a result of infanticide by outside males. Yet captive-born Samira is beating the odds to survive in the most unconventional way. Descended from the Barbaries in Rabat Zoo, Samira was born in June at Port Lympne Wildlife Park, located on the green hills of the Kent countryside in southeast England. Just 4 days after being born, she sustained a tragic injury when her mother accidentally bit through the tendons of her leg while trying to carry her. Her mother, Saffi, rejected the cub and attempted to bury her in the corner of the enclosure. This strange behaviour alerted keepers that something was wrong. At first her keeper Pete Thompson, feared they would have to put the cub down or amputate the limb. " It was about four months old I really thought she was going to lose a limb, it just didn't seem to be doing anything. There was movement there, if I pulled the leg out she would try and pull it back". Mr. Thompson said. "One of the vets mentioned going to hydrotherapy and it's loosened the leg up so we can work with it more", he added. The injured tendons meant Samira was unable to use her front right leg and as a result her shoulder muscles had also started to waste away. The hydrotherapy pool works by encouraging the cub to extend her damaged shoulder through swimming without having to bear weight on it, therefore there is no impact on the injury. Swimming in the pool increases the range of limb movement; she can straighten her leg more easily than on land and in that way the muscle tone improves through exercise. It was quite a challenge for animal hydrotherapist Roz Chaplin, who normally cares for dogs. " I didn't actually take the call one of my members of staff did, I actually thought it was a hoax, until I phoned the number and found out it was Port Lympne". Roz Chaplin said. " If we can improve her a little bit more than that will be wonderful", she added. Initially Samira was unsure about the water but now regularly attends the sessions wearing a lifejacket and accompanied in the pool by Roz and her keeper Pete Thompson. Pete has a close bond with the injured cub having reared her by hand after she was rejected by her mother. Every minute in the pool she uses as much energy as she would on a mile walk. She has also gained more control over her balance and can more readily stop herself falling over. What makes this Lion cub even more special is that she is part of a programme to try to reconstruct the sub-species using lions that show the DNA lineage and characteristics of the Barbary Lion which is extinct in the wild since the 1920s. Her father is Sulomen and her Grandfather is Kabir, both known to descend from the Barbary lions owned by the King of Morocco when the last known Barbary in the wild was shot. Samira, who will be two or three times her current size when fully grown, may never fully recover from her injury but now stands a much better chance of leading a normal life. Now at 9 months she will have to stop the hydrotherapy sessions soon as she will become too big and the risk in undertaking these sessions will be deemed too great. She will never be returned to the wild but it is hoped to get her paired with a young hand-reared male lion so perhaps if she is able to bear cubs, her descendants could one day roam free on a protected site in Morocco's Atlas Mountains. A quirky story.

ITN Source | April 14, 2004

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