| Christian's story has been told in both a book and a movie. Click here for more info. |
Christian The Lion - A True Story.
Kimba has a parallel in real life. |
Most pictures on this page can be clicked to show a bigger picture.
Click here to go to the main KIMBA page. |
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The part of Kimba's story that always meant the most
to me is not what you might call the main narrative;
it's mostly told in flashbacks, left to unfold as the
series progresses: his life with humans.
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The most familiar part of the story tells how his father was
killed and he left his mother to escape back to
Africa. What we don't learn right away is that he
didn't make it back to Africa, not at first. He landed
somewhere in Europe (remember, he was on the ship for
quite some time) where he was found and cared for by
Roger and his Uncle Pompus. The relationship between
them and Kimba shaped Kimba's personality and his
goal: to create a bridge between animals and humans.
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This idea of bridging the gap between animals and
humans is crucial to everything that happens in his
life, and is the main reason the show means so much to
me.
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Christian was separated from his parents at an early
age and put up for sale in a London department store.
Christian's parents were zoo lions, the father came
from the Rotterdam zoo and the mother from Jerusalem,
and they lived at the Ilfracombe zoo. When they had
cubs, the zoo sold them, and two cubs went to the
department store.
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Two men, Anthony Bourke and John Rendall, found him
there and immediately fell in love with him and
determined to buy him. They scraped together the money
and brought the little lion home when he was only a
few weeks old. They named him Christian.
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Tony and John dedicated themselves to giving Christian
the best life they could, and the bond that developed
between them is a joy to behold. Christian was a
remarkable lion, obviously very intelligent and
loving, and gentle to everyone, both human and animal.
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As he grew, Christian began to need bigger facilities
than Tony and John could provide. Thanks to a chance
meeting with Bill Travers (who had starred in the
movie Born Free), they hit upon the idea of sending
Christian to Africa to live as a wild lion.
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Bill Travers contacted George Adamson to set up the
project, and came up with the idea of making a
documentary movie of it all, to fund the project.
Christian is an absolute joy to watch in this movie.
The love he shows, his intelligence, his joie de vie, are beautiful. All the color pictures here are from the movie.
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 George Adamson, of course, was himself a bridge
between the worlds of humans and animals.
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The first step when Christian arrived at George's
compound, was to introduce him to Boy, a lion who had
been in the movie Born Free and who George had already
sent "back" to the wild, without losing his
relationship with him.
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Christian and Boy eventually became best friends, and
within a year Christian was living as a wild lion.
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Notice Christian's reaction at the beginning of this
video. Sort of 'ohmigosh, what are you guys doing here!' |
When that year had passed, Tony and John came to
Africa to see Christian. After a year of struggle,
tragedies, and life with a pride of lions in the wild,
the relationship Christian felt with Tony and John was
as strong as it had always been. In fact, Christian's
wonderful relationship with Tony and John caused the
other lions in the pride to accept and be at peace
with them as well.
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A bridge existed, and it withstood the separation and
the learning of a new way to live. Christian was
another lion of two worlds.
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Kimba's dream can happen. It has been proven on a
small scale. The question that eludes me is how to
enlarge the scale. How can a bridge be built that
encompasses all life? |
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