Antelope Park, Zimbabwe: Where the Intrepid Can Walk with Lions
I grew up in a rural area and was taught to hunt at an early age, so I developed a healthy respect for the creatures of the wild. Needless to say, one of the things I learned early on was that a wild animal will at some point always revert to its wild nature; wild animals don’t make good pets. So, when I visited Antelope Park, a combination resort/nature preserve near Gweru, a city in Zimbabwe’s Midlands Province southwest of the capital of Harare, and was asked if I wanted to pet the lions, my immediate answer was, “No, thanks.”
I didn’t mind walking with the two lion cubs they keep for this purpose. I didn’t even mind the larger one, Penya, a 15-month-old from South Africa, rubbing against my leg. But petting them just goes against my grain. Penya and her companion Paza, a 12-month-old, still had their milk teeth, but both of them weighed nearly as much as I do, and even their milk teeth can cut a nasty gash in human flesh, so I kept my hands to myself.
Ok, call me a wuss if you want, but that’s my policy, and I’m sticking to it. My wife, Myung, on the other hand, a city girl from Seoul, Korea, whose knowledge of lions is based on having watched the two “Lion King” movies, just had to pet the cute “little kitties.” She did this under the watchful eye of the two handlers and two guides, and I have to give her credit: She didn’t flinch. As for me, I kept a respectful distance and took pictures.
Antelope Park is a fantastic place to observe animals in the wild and those being prepared to be turned back into the wild, and even if I didn’t go the whole distance, it was worth every penny. Privately funded from fees paid by visitors and by the volunteers who spend from a month or two working with the lions or studying them, it’s one of the better-run game facilities in Zimbabwe. Accommodations range from semi-luxury tents at $110 per night to cabins on the island in the middle of a lake at $130 per night, including breakfast. There are also self-catered camping areas for much less for those who want to have a real safari. Walking with the lions costs $50 per person for an hour’s walk in the Phase 1 area, where lion cubs are introduced gradually to stalking and hunting under the supervision of experienced handlers. In Phase 2, the cubs, when they reach the age of 18 months, are introduced to a pride, where they then learn to hunt in a non-competitive environment. At this point, human contact is minimized. The park is planning to construct a Phase 3 area, where the prides will have to compete with each other and with other animals, replicating the conditions they will find in the wild. Until Phase 3 is built, select animals from Phase 2 are sent to game parks when the experts feel they can cope with being in the wild.
In addition to preparing the animals for survival in the wild as part of the African Lion Environmental Research Trust (ALERT) lion rehabilitation program and ensuring the survival of the species, Antelope Park is also studying the Feline Immuno-virus (FIV), which along with hunting, endangers lions in southern Africa. According to a student from Idaho State University who is doing his PhD thesis at the park, they’ve discovered that it’s possible lions contract FIV through their diet rather than through contact with other infected animals. The findings are as yet preliminary, but if confirmed, they could mean an end to at least one threat to the species.
Set in over 3,000 acres of savannah, Antelope Park offers, in addition to a chance to walk with lions, rides on elephant or horseback and canoeing down the river that traverses the park.
The thing that distinguishes Antelope Park from other game parks in Zimbabwe is the fact that it is primarily a research facility that offers accommodations for visitors who want to get a feel for life on the African veld.
