3d ago

The mane attraction: how many lions are in Australia and how well are they regulated?

4 comments

My grandma lives in Silverdale, a short walk from Warragamba dam.
There used to be an amusement park there with caged lions. I remember it vaguely from when I was about 5 years old I guess.
But it shutdown and they just left the lions there, fenced into the bushland between the dam and Silverdale. Growing up we’d stay with her every school holidays, and you could hear them roar every so often.
Those bushlands don’t exist anymore. It’s another shitty housing development now.
I know there's definitely no lions at Adelaide Zoo, because it chose to kill its last one after her mate died.
- It should go without saying that this was done by loving carers who had the best interests of the animal in question at heart, not coloured by anything crass such as financial considerations - yet here I am.
  There are lions at Monarto, a short trip up the freeway and I've heard the question of why she wasn't taken there?
  Because the pride would probably have killed her.
  She was old, she would have refused to eat, then she'd become weak, then she'd get sick and then she'd have suffered until she died.
  The keepers made a call, and as much as people might call this callous, others would have called them out if Amani was allowed to suffer for the following 3 months.
Seems like they don't have much pride 😟