Watch their journey home!
18 January 2016
Categories: Homepage News, Big Cats Campaign News, Rescue News, Shamwari
Born Free releases new video of Jora and Black’s epic 10,500-mile journey from Bulgaria to South African sanctuary
The Born Free Foundation has today released a heart-warming video of two magnificent ex-circus lions who were successfully rescued from Bulgaria and are now thriving in their new South African home.
Eight-year-old brothers Jora and Black made international headlines when they were rescued by Born Free in partnership with Four Paws from a beast wagon in Bulgaria just over three months ago. Thanks to generous public support, Born Free transported Jora and Black 10,500 miles via the UK to a new life at the award-winning Shamwari Game Reserve, near Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
The video, made available for the first time today, reveals how Born Free successfully rescued the lions, and shows the emotional moment the brothers were released from their travelling crates and stepped out onto African soil for the first time.
Born Free Foundation Projects Manager, Karen Pettman, said Jora and Black had settled into their new home quickly. “We are delighted that they have now adapted to their spacious home at Born Free’s Big Cat Rescue Centre on the Shamwari Game Reserve. Jora and Black clearly love being together and are very playful with each other. They are also becoming firm favourites with the centre’s visitors who they will often come out to say hello to, chasing each other along the edge of their enclosure.”
Taken in as small cubs, Jora and Black were originally part of a circus act touring Eastern Europe and Turkey. Following the Bulgarian government’s much-welcomed ban on the use of wild mammals in circuses, the lions were left to languish in a stifling beast wagon until the owners agreed to re-home them with Born Free. They will now be given lifetime care in their large, natural and safe accommodation at the Born Free Jean Byrd Education and Rescue Centre in Shamwari.
The release of the video comes as Born Free declares 2016 The Year of the Lion to highlight the plight of lions worldwide and to mark the 50th anniversary of the Oscar-winning motion picture Born Free. The film starred actors and Born Free Foundation co-founders Virginia McKenna and her late husband, Bill Travers, as pioneering conservationists Joy and George Adamson and their successful rehabilitation of Elsa the lioness to the wild. Special screenings, activities, news and events are planned throughout 2016.
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