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Nicole's
Travelogues and Budget Travel Tips..
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GWERU (CONT.), ZIMBABWEAfter signing a lengthy disclaimer about not suing if we are mauled, we told him what activities we wanted to do. I just said, "sign me up for all lion activities as many times as I can do them!" Each of the activities costs extra - oh yea they are making good money off ya! - but if you repeat the same activity, the second and third time are half price and the fourth time is free. So I did a lion walk 4 times - the first time was $30, the second and third were $15, and the fourth was free. Didn't I mention they were making $$$ off me?! Some other prices included: lion feeding for $5, game drive for $15, elephant walk for $20. So you can see how it's pretty easy to spend a couple hundred dollars quickly.
Our first lion walk had come! After playing with the 60 month old cubs, it was soon time for the walk. You can do 2 lion walks per day - one at 7am and one at 4pm. Usually you can request which cubs you want to walk with. Matthew drove us and 4 others to the encloser of the oldest cubs - 13 months old. When we got there, I was thinking this couldn't be who we are walking with. They were HUGE! All four were pacing quickly in front of the gate and making growling noises. OK, either they were excited to get out and eat us or they were excited to get out and play in the bush or both!
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Anyway, Antelope Park has a lion breeding program that ensures all lions are free from the serious diseases that are depleting populations in other parks. Large numbers of lions from parks in Tanzania, Zambia, and Botswana have died from feline immunodeficiency and canine distemper virus. The lions at Antelope are fed every two days on beef or horse meat (often dead cows are donated to the park) - they do not hunt. They are habituated to walking with humans in the bush from eight to sixteen months. Once the cubs turn seventeen months, they are taken out of the walking rotation and kept in a separate enclosure to breed or sold to other breeding programs. They are taken off walking rotation because at that age they become a bit too spunky and their behavior can become unpredictable. 
There are 4-5 sets of cubs at any given time of various ages that you can play with and walk with. The youngest cubs, while we were there, were 6 months old and kept in an enclosure next to the dining area. Matthew, our assigned guide, took us into the enclosure and there were 5 cubs staring at us - looking at us a little like we were play toys and a little like we were snacks. One bit me hard on the shoulder and another bit 2 holes in my pants. They were playing of course but very strong already! They were adorable but also a bit scary because they would stare at you crazy-like and almost look through you.
Matthew layed down the ground rules before he opened the fence: 
He opened the gate and they all ran out - some of them head butting us as they passed. We all walked with them along a path for an hour and a half. It was amazing! I mean it really was! I mean really it was! My favorite was named Timba, he was the biggest male and already had the first layer of his mane in. It didn't take long for us to see what Matthew meant by "naughty look." They were tracking us almost immediately. They would lock onto you and start to slow down and start to crouch until one of the guides or we said no and hit our stick in the dirt. They are cubs and still have short attention spans, so you can distract them if they are going to pounce - but it was still hair-raising! 
