Kenya Animals

Did you see the news on BBC about Christian The Lion?

I was watching BBC news the other day and the presenters were interviewing Rendall and Ace about a recent You Tube phenomenon about Christian.

Some one, not yet identified, uploaded a clip of a documentary that Rendall and Ace filmed when they went to Kenya in 1971 to meet their old friend Christian.

Christian Was Bought In Harrods

It was quite a moving documentary to watch. Apparently, Rendall and Ace bought Christian from Harrods in 1969. They took him home to leave with them in their London flat. Their girlfriends later fell in love with Christian and helped to care for him.

Rendell and Ace owned a furniture shop and they used to take Christian with them to work every day. When he was smaller, he was such a joy to look at and people started visiting the shop just to see him. As he grew much older, people became more frightened of him. Not that he was fierce or violent, he was just big and people assumed the worst.

Why Christian Had To Return To The Wild

They had no idea about how to go about it. It was then that Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, stars of the film Born Free, visited Rendall and Bourke’s at their furniture shop and suggested an interesting way out for them.

Christian The Lion Book

In their book, Chirstian the Lion, Rendall and Ace have detailed the journey to Kenya with Christian and the challenges that Christian faced in his rehabilitation into the wild.

The book captures all the precious moments that they had with Christian in their London flat, the journey to Kenya through Paris, their first night in the African bush and Christian’s reaction when he met other Kenya animals at Kora National Reserve, his new home.

I found this book to fascinating, not just as a story but in the sense that I felt the unconditional love and acceptance that Christian, Rendall and Ace shared. In a great way, we have lost that connection with people.

You can buy the book here.

If you have read the book or you have interesting stories about an encounter with kenya animals or even some lovely pictures of the same, please feel free to share them with us.

Have A Great Story About Kenya Animals

Do you have a great story about Kenya animals? An animal book you read, a safari, pictures? Share it!