Sometimes smiles don’t look like smiles. Sometimes they look like tears. But sometimes tears are really smiles in a different form. Such is the case with Christian the Lion.
Let’s have a little explination before I unleash the video on you. Christian the lion was originally purchased by Australians John Rendall and Anthony “Ace” Bourke from Harrods department store in London, England, in 1969 and ultimately reintroduced to the African wild by conservationist George Adamson. One year after Adamson released Christian to the wild, his former owners decided to go looking for him to see whether Christian would remember them. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Christian was originally acquired by Harrods from the now-defunct zoo park in Ilfracombe. Rendall and Bourke, along with their friends Jennifer Mary Taylor and Unity Jones, cared for the lion where they lived in London until he was one year old. As Christian the lion got larger, the men moved him to their furniture store where living quarters in the basement were set aside for him. The men obtained permission from a local vicar to exercise Christian at a church graveyard, and the men also took the lion on day trips to the seaside.
Christian’s growing size and the increasing cost of his care led Rendall and Bourke to realize they could no longer keep Christian in London. As luck would have it Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, stars of the film Born Free, visited Rendall and Bourke’s furniture store and met Christian suggesting that Bourke and Rendall ask the assistance of George Adamson, a Kenyan conservationist. Adamson agreed to reintegrate Christian into the wild at their compound in the Kora National Reserve.
Over the course of a year, as George Adamson continued his work, a pride established itself in the region around Kora, with Christian as the head of the pride.
When John and Ace were informed by Adamson of Christian’s successful reintroduction to the wild they traveled to Kenya around 1972 to visit Christian and were filmed in the documentary Christian The Lion at World’s End which was released in the U.S. as Christian the Lion. According to the documentary, Adamson advised Rendall and Bourke that Christian might not remember them. The film shows the lion at first cautiously approach then, as recognition begins to dawn, the lion picks up his pace and then quickly leaps playfully onto the two men, as he always did in the past, standing on his hind legs and wrapping his front legs around their shoulders, nuzzling their faces. It is this event that is shown in the grainy film later in this post. The documentary also shows the lionesses, Mona and Lisa, and a foster cub named Supercub welcoming the two men.
Rendall details a final, largely unfilmed reunion that occurred in either 1973 or 1974 depending on who is telling the story. Adamson advised Rendall that it would most likely be a wasted trip as he had not seen Christian’s pride for nine months.
The night before they landed, according to Adamson, Christian suddenly reappeared and sat on a rock outside the naturalist’s camp — as if waiting for Rendall and Bourke. Somehow Christian the Lion seemed to know.
The second reunion lasted until the next morning. Christian walked back into the bush, where his lionesses were waiting. He was never seen again.
If you are ready, here is the video. Try to watch it without crying.
I have never been able to.
You can learn more about Christian the Lion at the “official” website.
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