Their transfer lasted nearly 90 hours: a lion and two lionesses arrived this Friday in Burgundy after being rescued from the war in Ukraine, noted an AFP journalist.
Atlas, a two and a half year old lion, and the two lionesses Luladja and Queen, around two years old, arrived early in the morning at the Auxois Animal Park, in Arnay-sous-Vitteaux (Côte d'Or) .
“Atlas comes from around Kiev and was rescued from a woman who had had him as a small child, before determining that he was becoming too aggressive, perhaps because of the bombings,” explained Charlotte von Croÿ, head of the rescue team. emergency to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
This American association ensured the transfer of the felines by van via Poland, a journey of 88 hours.
Atlas was supercharged and weighed 294 kg, compared to a normal weight of less than 200 kg.
The two lionesses were recovered in eastern Ukraine, probably from individuals who had fled the war, according to Charlotte von Croÿ.
We were moved by Yuna's story, a lioness who was shell shocked & concussed after a missile attack in the Kyiv region.
While her full recovery is far away, the team at Wild Animal Rescue is happy with every small step in her recovery like eating more & standing on her own again.
pic.twitter.com/21zBu0MQuj
— ifaw (@ifawglobal) January 22, 2024
The felines were first rescued by the Wild Animal Rescue association, in a shelter near kyiv, while they found a place in a park in Europe.
“That’s always the difficulty,” explains the IFAW manager.
An international appeal was then launched, to which the Parc de l'Auxois responded favorably.
A panther already welcomed in the Loire
“It’s also part of the missions of animal parks: to welcome animals in need,” explained Geoffrey Delahaye, animal manager of the park.
The 40-hectare center, which has about 500 animals, was searching for a lion after its own died last summer.
The three lions will join a lioness, present in the park.
“They will first undergo an acclimatization phase.
We will give them time to find their bearings,” according to Geoffrey Delahaye.
The felines' crates will be placed then opened in their 5,000 m2 enclosure, but the team will wait for the animals to come out on their own to avoid any further trauma.
IFAW has already rescued 13 big cats from war-torn Ukraine.
They are in the United States, Poland, Belgium, Spain, and a panther was welcomed in 2022 at the Saint-Martin-la-Plaine animal park (Loire).
“There are probably still dozens of them in Ukraine, where it is legal to have big cats,” underlines Charlotte von Croÿ.
Individuals are required to have a large enclosure and to care for them properly but, “in 99% of cases, this is not respected,” she adds.