Lion Conservation Experience

Highlights

Exclusive to African Conservation Experience

Course leader Jason Turner created the Lion Conservation Experience Experience especially for our travellers. This conservation project isn’t open to the public and doesn’t take tours.

Support groundbreaking conservation

Canned lion hunting, cub cuddling and the farming of lions for the bone trade are major animal rights issues. Especially as lion parts and even whole carcasses are now legally exported from South Africa to Asia. The GWLPT are leading the fight against this cruelty and have taken important steps towards having these practices banned.

See lions in the bush

As a specialist lion conservation project, you’ll join the team as they research the movement and behaviour of these amazing creatures, giving you lots of sighting opportunities.

Get a unique perspective

This experience gives you the chance to learn about lions from leading ecologists and work with local people who live alongside predators.

See Kruger National Park

The project is located on the fringes of Kruger and during your trip, you’ll get the chance to explore this area which is so famous for its wildlife.

Do

During a 14-day Lion Conservation Experiences Experience, you’ll get involved in the following activities:

Lion tracking and monitoring

• Twice a day, you’ll participate in tracking and monitoring the white and tawny lions that the project has released in three separate locations
• Occasionally, you may have the chance to observe the darting of wild lions to fit new tracking collars or change over an old collar or battery
• Go on organised walks in the bush to find and remove snares, which are a constant problem

Lion behaviour and carnivore care

Project leader and lion ecologist Jason Turner (MSc) is a specialist in lion behaviour and white lions in particular. Accompanied by the project team, you will have the chance to observe the behaviour of the various prides of lions in their natural habitat.

• Get to know the behavioural patterns and personalities of individual animals
• Help to spot any unusual wildlife behaviour or potential veterinary issues

Conservation and the community

Linda Tucker, founder of the Global White Lion Protection Trust and acclaimed author, has a strong connection with the local community. Her work reviving a tribal tradition that holds the white lion as sacred has been central to the project’s success.

• Spend time with local people, learning about their relationship with lions and other wild animals
• Help the project team with their community outreach programme

Observe wildlife in Kruger National Park

During your stay, you’ll spend a whole day experiencing one of Africa’s most famous National Parks.

• As well as lions, Kruger gives you the chance to see large herds of elephants, buffalo, plus elusive and rare species such as leopards, hyenas and the endangered African wild dog
• Kruger also has the largest population of rhino left in Africa and if you’re lucky you may even get to see both the white and black rhino

Learn

As well as observing lions and helping the project team (which you can read about under the ‘do’ tab), Jason and his team will present informative talks on lion conservation and white lions in particular.

You’ll learn about:

• The uniqueness of the white lions and the struggle that the project team underwent to have them recognised as more than the result of a recessive gene
• The history of the Global White Lion Protection Trust
• The threats to lions’ survival, including canned hunting, the cub cuddling industry, the lion bone trade as well as loss of habitat
• The global conservation strategy to save the lion and local anti-poaching initiatives
• The project’s innovative and successful reintroduction of captive-born lions into the wild
• The cultural connection between local tribal communities and the sacred white lion