WATCH: Pampered lion hunts for attention from his favourite human

23 February 2017 - 19:01 By Dave Chambers
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Smokey the lion has known Mike Mathalala since he was a cub‚ and now their close relationship has warmed hearts around the world.

A video that has been viewed thousands of times shows Smokey blocking a road into the Glen Garriff Conservation Park in Harrismith‚ Free State.

Footage shows him walking over to lion manager Mathalala before stopping in the middle of the road. The lion refuses to move until Mathalala cuddles and strokes him.

Suzanne Scott‚ from Glen Garriff‚ said Smokey followed the same ritual every day.

“We cannot claim to ever know what lions are thinking but every evening the gate from Smokey's camp is opened to the passage so that he can come and go as he pleases‚” she said.

“It also gives us some security too. Every morning when Mike comes in to work he has this ritual with Smokey to get him back into his own camp so we can use the passage for vehicles.

“It is our belief that Smokey often delays this process for more attention from Mike‚ who is his favourite person.”

Glen Garriff‚ which is home to 80 lions — many rescued from circuses and zoos — aims to preserve their gene pool‚ with lions selectively bred from eight family groups.

“We provide an environment where our animals can live in safety‚ be treated with the compassion and respect they deserve‚ free of abuse and persecution‚” said Scott.

She said the sanctuary’s biggest problem was funding‚ and she hoped the publicity garnered by the Smokey video would boost its crowdfunding efforts.

Glen Garriff’s appeal to funders says money raised will buy fuel to transport lion food‚ maintain and improve facilities‚ pay for veterinary care and perform sterilisations and vasectomies.

“There are several improvements we would like to add to enhance our lions’ day to day life such as: building additional structures for the lions to climb and play on‚ purchasing suitable lion toys such as boomer balls‚ creating hunting scenarios for the younger lions using suitable mobile devices‚ building additional natural shallow dams‚ rock pools etc and buying and relocating large trees for the lions to climb on.

“In addition we need to fund the expansion of our facilities so we can be in a position to accept more rescue animals as the need arises."

Click here to visit the GoFundMe page.

TMG Digital/TimesLIVE

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