The reunion of men and lion

This video is about an awesome true story.

John Rendall and Ace Berg, brought this lion to Africa to be reintroduced to his natural habitat with the help of a great man, George Adamson (the guy the movie “Born Free” was about). They then returned a year later. The lion remembered them.

They had found the lion as a cub at Harrods' then (1969) exotic animals' department. As John Rendall recalled for the daily Mail, they went there out of curiosity after … :
"A friend had been to the 'exotic animals' department at Harrods and announced, rather grandly, that she wanted a camel," says Rendall.
"To which the manager very coolly replied: 'One hump or two, madam?'

"Ace and I thought this was the most sophisticated repartee we'd ever heard, so we went along to check it out - and there, in a small cage, was a gorgeous little lion cub.

We were shocked. We looked at each other and said something's got to be done about that." They took the lion-cub for a few months, by which time it already grew rather large, and soon realised that the best solution for this magnificent cat was to live in the African wild.

Reintroducing a lion to the wild is no small feat however. Lions need to live and hunt in prides. And introducing a new male on an existing pride is basically impossible. Even with the help of Lion-man Adamson, this made the project rather questionable.

Nonetheless, at one years old, after living in London for many months, “Christian the King’s Road lion” was taken to the Kora Reserve in Kenya ( about 350 kilometres to the north-east of Nairobi) to be reintroduced with other lions back into the wild. There were many trials, including when another semi-tamed lion, named “Boy” killed the chef ... who was startled by seeing the lion close-by and started running and screaming. Boy was shot through the heart by Adamson but it was too late to save the man.

For Christian, the concern was different. He had been so tamed that it was unlikely that he could survive the harsh conditions of the savannah. He was observed making terrible lion-world-blunders … like stalking (and almost getting killed by) a rhinoceros. But thanks to the brilliance of Adamson, adapt this lion finally did. He hunted, fed, and stoped returning to camp. He even had some lionesses and a litter of cubs. His mane not even fully grown, he had already become the head of self-sufficient pride.

The King’s Road lion had reverted to his wild state again … so much so that when about a year later … Rendall and Ace decided to travel to Kenya to possibly catch a glimpse of him … Adamson warned them against it: "Christian hasn't been here for nine months … and he may never come back". Rendall replied, "We appreciate that, but we'll come anyway and see you.” When they arrived however, Adamson told them: "Christian arrived last night. He's here with his lionesses and his cubs. He's outside the camp on his favourite rock. He's waiting for you."

And when John and Ace started approaching what was by now a wild lion … "Christian stared at us in a very intense way," says Rendall. "I knew his expressions and I could see he was interested. We called him and he stood up and started to walk towards us very slowly.
"Then, as if he had become convinced it was us, he ran towards us, threw himself on to us, knocked us over, knocked George over and hugged us, like he used to, with his paws on our shoulders.
"Everyone was crying. We were crying, George was crying, even the lion was nearly crying."
"The lionesses were far from pleased. There was a lot of growling and spitting," continues Rendall.
"'George said: 'This isn't safe - we'd better go.' So we each put a hand on Christian's back and he walked with us back to camp."

The reunion party went on all night and into the morning. Leaving his exhausted companions to go to their beds, Christian returned to his pride.”

The Daily Mail Interview