Liuwa The ‘Last Lioness’ of Liuwa Plain
記事が消されたら大変と思って4年は経過してしまった。彼女がどんなライオネスだった忘れないように。Remembering Lady LiuwaRemembering Lady LiuwaIt doesn't matter how much you know about lions, or what you think you know about them, how many scientific publications you've read, nor how much time you've spent with them. They will always surprise you. None more so than a very beautiful lady that I've known for the last three years. I met Lady in mid-2014 at Liuwa Plain National Park in Zambia and was privileged to witness just a small piece of the puzzle that made up one of the world’s most famous lionesses.While driving through Liuwa and its massive open landscape, you can literally almost see the curvature of the earth. The lions, you can generally see from a kilometre or so away - the small bump on the horizon is the giveaway in the vast open landscape. As you meander slowly over the crisp earth towards them you can always recognise Lady from a distance, the way she cocks her head to the side, waiting for you, expecting you; that'll be Lady.And it was true; she didn't look at you like a lion - there was none of that bone chilling stare, head held high, alert "through you" sort of look. She would give you a sort of gentle titled head view, a relaxed and familiar pose. A look that had seen it all, and been through thousands of nights of loneliness. But that look - the sharing of space, with you - an outsider; there was that.There are very few photos I have of her where she wasn't either playfully rolling on her back, playing with her "adopted" cubs or gazing at you in that titled pose. Regal in fact. Age sometimes highlights regality, and with Lady it was no exception; she was close on 17 years, and had somehow made it through so much.Everyone that has had time with Lady, from the local villages living in the park, to filmmakers, scouts and visitors, we all have a story. Something special, something unusual, something that cuts straight across the pure science of fact. The fact is sometimes simply something that becomes diminished by black and white type, brought to us in an inbox full of noise. There are too many stories I've heard from the camp attendants, the nearby villages where fact, and for that matter fiction, simply doesn't make sense.I could write multiple stories, I tried to, but to be honest none of them bring to life the memory of what I have of Lady. There is a book by Malcolm Gladwell, called "Outliers," and if he ever wrote an updated version, I'd ask him to include Lady Liuwa’s story. She was an anomaly, an orphan, that had somehow survived the odds of the harshness of the African bush. And although her entire pride had been wiped out by illegal hunting, she found friendship in humanity, and later with an adopted pride. She was a bridge perhaps between what should have been in our Eden and what we see so much around us today.I last saw her on the 15th of July. She was looking magnificent, old, tired certainly and perhaps a bit blind. She entertained us for a while with her "adopted" nephews in an attempt to dig out an aardvark from a burrow and then she, along with her adopted family including two rambunctious cubs moved off. I said goodbye to her that day, not even remotely guessing that a few weeks later we'd all be saying goodbye. We'll never know what went on in those last few days but what we do know is that her story of survival, of restoration and of unity lives on the small and growing pride that now exists in Liuwa, because of her.It's hard for me, as a wildlife manager to become relaxed in discussing matters of anthropomorphism. We often have to separate ourselves from the harsh reality of managing huge natural systems, where animals don't have names, and not allow our personal desires to step in the way of management decisions. Most of the time we refer to these beasts by numbers. Generally, the allocated number of the VHF telemetry collar that they're wearing - Cheetah 179, Li-252 etc. The last year of so we've pondered what would happen when she got old, would she resort to livestock killing, would humans be in danger? My, how we completely missed the mark. Perhaps that's why on my VHF receiver her title is not Li-148 as it should be, quite simply, it's just "Lady".Remembering Lady LiuwaThe ‘Last Lioness’ of Liuwa PlainIt has been confirmed by African Parks that a legendary lioness fondly known as ‘Lady Liuwa’, who lived in Liuwa Plain National Park in Zambia, has died of natural causes on August 9th, 2017, just one-day before World Lion Day. African Parks, a conservation NGO which manages national parks and protected areas across Africa, has been managing Liuwa Plain in partnership with the Zambia Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) and the Barotse Royal Establishment (BRE) since 2003.Lady Liuwa was an icon, and a symbol of survival and resilience. Due to years of poaching and illegal trophy hunting, lions were completely eradicated from Liuwa Plain in the 1990’s, except for one lioness – Lady Liuwa. Her presence was first confirmed in 2002 and since then she roamed the plains for years as the sole survivor in the park. With no lions to be found, she looked to humans for companionship. Her extraordinary story of survival, as well as how African Parks helped give her a pride of her own, became one of the most moving wildlife films ever produced. “Lady Liuwa was a truly exceptional lioness, so much so that it is impossible to do justice to her in words” said Peter Fearnhead, CEO of African Parks. “Oftentimes she would lie just five meters away from our camp-fire in the middle of the park. When it came time to go to bed, she would follow, walking parallel to the path and then fall asleep in front of one of our tents. In the mornings, we would find her in a tree, just watching but never threatening us. After years of being solitary, and after several reintroductions and careful management, we were finally able to unite her with her own kind. While her passing saddens us all, she leaves behind a legacy of survival in the small but growing pride in Liuwa Plain”.The efforts to find Lady Liuwa her own family were not without setbacks. After five years of waiting for lions to return to Liuwa from the larger landscape, and after securing the park through improved law enforcement and working with local communities, African Parks reintroduced a male lion in 2008 to join Lady. Sadly, he died during the translocation process. A year later, two more males were reintroduced, both of whom mated with Lady Liuwa but she never produced any cubs, almost certainly because of her infertility. Two young lionesses were then reintroduced in 2011.However, in 2012 one of the females was killed by a poacher’s snare and the other, Sepo, fled towards the Angolan boundary. In a dramatic rescue mission, Sepo was darted, flown back to the park by helicopter and placed in a boma for safety along with Lady Liuwa to encourage Sepo to bond with Lady, critical for the young lioness' survival. And this time it worked. After two months, they were released back into the park, and were inseparable from that point forward. Sepo produced her first litter of cubs shortly thereafter.The growing pride suffered another setback when the two males left the park and entered Angola. One was shot and killed by villagers, but the other made it safely back to Liuwa on his own, where he became the resident male. African Parks in collaboration with the Zambia Carnivore Programme (ZCP), DNPW and Mushingashi Conservancy reintroduced another male lion in September 2016 to help grow the pride and increase genetic integrity. The newly translocated male and the resident male were placed in a boma for two months to undergo the bonding process and then were successfully released into the park to join with the females. While the males were in the enclosure, Lady Liuwa and Sepo would visit them, sleeping just outside of it at night, and staying just a short distance from it during the day. On November 15th 2016 it was confirmed that Sepo had produced another two new cubs, sired by the resident male. While Lady Liuwa could not have cubs of her own, she was seen helping to raise Sepo’s numerous litters over the years, and it was clear that finally Lady Liuwa had a pride of her own.Lady Liuwa’s exact age is unknown, but it is believed she was 17 years old, an extraordinary feat for a wild lion hunting and surviving on her own, and is a testament to the collaborative protection she was afforded by African Parks, the DNPW, ZCP and the BRE. Her remains along with her VHF collar were found yesterday. There was no sign of human activity and it is believed she died of natural causes.“It’s incredibly rare for a lion to live to such an old age and to die from natural causes” said Matthew Becker, CEO of ZCP. “Lions are incredibly threatened across their range given the levels of poaching, conflict killing and habitat loss and fragmentation that is occurring across the continent. Her survival and that of her growing pride signifies what can happen when people come together to help protect and restore a species – Lady’s story is one of hope and possibility”.To read a moving tribute by Rob Reid, prior Park Manager of Liuwa Plain, please click here.
出産・子育て
ファッション
美容・コスメ
健康・ダイエット
生活・インテリア
料理・食べ物
ドリンク・お酒
ペット
趣味・ゲーム
映画・ＴＶ
音楽
読書・コミック
旅行・海外情報
園芸
スポーツ
アウトドア・釣り
車・バイク
パソコン・家電
そのほか
すべてのジャンル
