Richardson, 32, who is based in a wildlife conservation area near Johannesburg in South Africa, works his unusual magic on other species too. Cheetahs, leopards and even unpredictable hyenas hold no threats for him. I petted a Cheetah once and I wanted one immediately. Unfortunately NZ DSIR or whatever it was called at the time wasn't going to allow me to set up a Cheetah conservation in Coatesville :-(
So instinctively in tune is he with these beasts, whose teeth are sharp enough to bite through thick steel, that mother hyenas even allow him to hold their newborn cubs without pouncing to the rescue.
But lions are his favourite. He lavishes them with unconditional love, he says, treating each individual differently, speaking to them, caressing them and, above all, treating them with respect.
What an exciting job.
5 comments:
I like this article. :-)
Me too Andrew... I'd like to pat the lions too..
I like this story too, but they usually have the same ending...animal trainer becomes lunch for big cats...
Well there is a couple of folk in Vegas who will agree with you on that on GPX. They were tigers though. There are dangers in most every job ;-)
Trust he's a bit better with females of the same species than our own lion man ... just goes to show these skills aren't necessarily generalisable across species.
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