VIDEO: Kevin Richardson and His Lion Companion

Called the “Lion Whisperer”, conservationist Kevin Richardson is trying to explain in this video how these majestic creatures are being pushed out of their natural habitat, when his feline companion decides to chime in and express his own opinions on the matter.

Here are some further details on Kevin Richardson and his work, provided by Wikipedia.

Kevin Richardson was born in the Nightingale Clinic on 8 October 1974 in Johannesburg, South Africa. His mother, Patricia, worked for Barclays Bank and was also born in South Africa. Richardson’s father, who worked for a pharmaceutical company, was born in the United Kingdom and moved to South Africa. Kevin Richardson is the youngest of four children: he has an older brother and two sisters who are twins. His father died when Richardson was thirteen years old. When he was about sixteen, he met Stan Schmidt and began his career as a “self-taught behaviourist.”

Richardson went to college and studied zoology, but quit following two years of repetitive lessons on marine biology instead of mammals. As an adult, Richardson believed that he would never have a career working with animals and that it would remain a hobby of his. He started taking courses in physiology and anatomy in college and started a career in exercise physiology. and became an exercise physiologist. When he was twenty-three, he had the opportunity to work with two six-month-old lion cubs, Tau and Napoleon, at the Lion Park near the outskirts of his home in Johannesburg. He still works with the grown cubs. The facility owner, Rodney Fuhr, started him off with a part-time job at the Lion Park.

Richardson worked in a 1600-acre Lion Park in Broederstroom, a town 35 miles north of his hometown, Johannesburg, in South Africa. While specializing in lions, he also interacted with hyenas and leopards. He spent the first part of his lion career at the Lion Park before moving to the Kingdom of the White Lion. Richardson has a special facility called the Kingdom of the White Lion in Broederstroom. The park, which was set up with the help of Rodney Fuhr, is 800 hectares (2,000 acres) and was built for the set of the movie White Lion. Richardson cares for thirty-nine lions at this facility. Currently, the facility is private, but there are plans to open it to the public.

Richardson has worked with big cats and relies on intuition rather than static rules. He has slept next to, fed, and lived with lions. Along with lions, he has worked with cheetahs, leopards, and hyenas. His relationship with the animals, however, has not been an instant one. He has known all of the lions he works with since they were cubs. He still continues his bond with Tau and Napoleon, the lion brothers who were his introduction to big cats.

Richardson rejects the traditional notion that lions should be mastered and dominated, preferring to develop a relationship over time, based on love and respect. “A lion is not a possession; it’s a sentient being, so you must pay attention and develop your bond like with any relationship.”

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