Two and a half years ago Valentin Gruener and Mikkel Legarth saved a baby lioness named Sirga from certain death. In the video below you will see Valentin opens her cage to see her for the first time since , how the 110Kg cat greets him will be the most remarkable moment of his life and it goes to show the strong bond that have been created between Valentin and Sirga the lioness
Mikkel and Valentin both from Germany met on a farm back in 2009 while fulfilling their lifetime dream to help create a stronger bond between people and the wilderness. They did it with the establishment of Modisa Wildlife Project in an area to the west of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and with William De Graaff which is the owner of neighboring Grassland Safari Lodge.
” Modisa and Grassland have a mutual target of contributing to a better future for big cats and surrounding wildlife. Grassland started their conservation work by capturing lions and other big cats in conflict with farmers to spare them from certain death.” While it is against the law in Botswana to kill lions, it has little effect.
The story of Sirga is quite remarkable, She was born in the wild two and half years ago among a pride of lions, Sirga, however, was pushed out of the pride at a very young age because her mother was dried out of milk. She was found by Willian De Graaf who contacted Valentin to help him save this little cat. When Valentin frist met Sirga she was totally dehydrated and near death, but Valentin didn’t give up and with a telephone help from a vet he was able to put Sirga on a drip.
Once this used its self out Sirga was strong enough to be fed through a bottle, Valentin slept with her many many nights to look after her and make sure she was gaining her strength. In the following months Mikkel and Valentin started to make their own milk for Sirga ” We made her milk from scratch – fresh eggs m cream, milk, vitamins, sunflower oil and calcium, it’s a luxurious meal for a little lion ” her health got better and she grew bigger and was not a little lion cup anymore
Sirga was born in the wild, so there was never any question about her being released back into the wild after she got her strength back. Would her wild instinct take over or will she remain a loving cat to Valentin. Clearly her reaction to meeting Valentin has proved that you can have a remarkable bond between man and beast
Source: Stylish Eve
