Lion King Brothers were Saved as Cubs. - The Lion Whisperer

Look how content that cat is. Don't do that! Crazy cat hugging weeds. Good morning, good morning, good morning guys. Today I'm going to be taking George and Yame out for a birthday walk. Hello boys! Turning 12. I can't believe I'm saying that. 12 years of age. They really have transformed from cubs to kings. Hello yum yum. Who's a my boy? Okay, let's go. What a thank you. Happy birthday big boy. I think Yame is smelling the chicken. I had some chicken. And he's going, where is mine? Kev, where is my chicken? George is having a lovely little sniff around. Yame's having a nice little scratch. Come boys, let's go. Super happy these guys. You wouldn't say there are 12. It's crazy. Such energy. Full of vigor. This lion is nuts. He's gone crazy. The flop down. I'm very glad that I decided. Oh, I'm super glad that I decided not to bring the bigger rig. So I brought the bigger rig along. Because I like bringing you guys awesome footage. But yeah, this is giving him a wide berth. Let me get a little bit possessive. So Yame gets quite possessive over poo and smells and stuff like that. Whereas George is not as bad. He just gets super excited. But yeah, so I brought the bigger rig along. And then I decided wisely, I think, not to use it. Because these two can be quite boisterous. And it generally lands up. Meaning that something gets broken. Normally the camera. You're very vocal this morning, my boy. Yeah, you got a lot of energy. Hey, looking forward to your walk. Yeah, massive thanks to all of you who commented. In one of the preceding videos about whether you notice a difference. Don't do that. What is this problem? Georgie. No. Hey. Come. Come, boy. Yum, yum. Come, my boy. Oh, my boy. He's so horrible. Hey. Horrible to you, my boy. Hey. Sorry, my boy. Just ignore him. Yes, he can be horrible. Hey. George's possessiveness. George hates getting frights. So, you know, Yame running up on him like that. His natural form of defense is offense. And yeah, I think it's... Personally, I think it's because his vision is not that great. And we'll get into that, what happened to these two when they were younger. It's a story certainly worth repeating for those of you who are new to the channel and haven't heard me talk about George and Yame. These two beautiful male lions. And why they are here. Why we're walking, etc, etc. So, let me just finish off with what I was saying before George rudely interrupted was many thanks to all of you who commented about the video quality. I was asking the question, do you guys really see a difference or notice a difference when I take the bigger rig out with the stabilization? It's the SL, I beg your pardon, the mirrorless digital camera. Do you notice a difference when I use that versus the GoPro? And yeah, the GoPro is really, really light. Super easy to maneuver. I can keep up with the lions, no problem without panting in your ear. And yeah, I think the GoPro does give beautiful footage. It's just you don't get that depth of field. And the punch in that you would get with the Ronin rig. So there is a quality difference. I can see it, guys. And I'm sure if you put the video side by side, you would also notice it. But it does make my life a lot easier just being able to walk around with the GoPro and not have to hassle with the bigger rig. Most of you said you're just happy with the GoPro. Some of you said you noticed the quality. So that was lovely. But the majority of you were saying that you just want to see the videos of the lions and that you don't care how I bring it to you and whatever's easiest. And they really are worried, you as the audience, are worried about my health. And so, yeah, I'm going to mix it up a bit. But anyway, thanks for that. And yeah, it's just interesting. We kind of, as filmmakers, are always wanting to bring you these very dynamic shots. And sometimes I think when there's a lot going on in a video or people just want to know about the lions, they don't really care. It's just all about, it's all about the content. So now, is that because, look at him rolling, is that because we have been kind of overburdened with all this content out there that we just don't really care about quality anymore? There's a question for you guys. Do you think it's the reason that content is more important than quality? So what's happening in camera is much more important than how it's filmed. I think that's a topic worth exploring. Listen, when he comes running up, you mustn't get all excited, Mr. Georgia. Hey, happy birthday. Your old man, William my boy, does not like me to lead him. He wants to be the leader. Come, Georgia. Oh, slowly my boy. Don't want to sneak up. Look at how he looks. See how his face. Okay, wait, wait, wait. I don't want you guys being like that. Do you see how he wants to always be the leader? George is a leader. So, who are George and Yami? They originate from France. So somewhere along the line, they were born in France. And I believe it was in a circus. And then they were actually smuggled to Spain, where they landed up in this facility, which is like a theme park called Terra Mitica. And they were being passed around for photo opportunities. People would pay to pet. Basically, five euro a pop of your photo taken with George and Yami. And George and Yami were very small at that point in time. And they were probably about two months of age, being fed a watered down cow's milk diet, which is not very nutritious for a carnivore. And as a result, they developed issues. George developed metabolic bone disease. His bones were fracturing left, right and center. He had juvenile cataracts. And in fact, George suffered the consequences of malnutrition far worse than Yami. Yami tended to weather that storm a lot better. He's quite a resilient boy. And that's just, you know, the luck of the draw in terms of their genes. But over here in South Africa, a lady who was part of an organization at that time called the Campaign Against Canned Hunting, she came across this Facebook post and that obviously intrigued her. She did some more research and found out that these lions were at this theme park. And she contacted colleagues in Spain who did some more digging and they found out that the lions had no permits. And therefore they were confiscated by the Spanish authorities and they were put in this sanctuary where they were looked after. And there in came CJ and Louis. And CJ Munoz, who subsequently passed away, nice lady and Louis, they kind of adopted George and Yami. They paid for, you know, all the veterinary intervention, their food, etc. But then the big hunt was on to find George and Yami a home. A home in South Africa, because that's what people think. It's an African lion, it must come back to South Africa. Although, you know, nowadays I say we don't even know how African these lions actually are, because the amount of generations that have gone by that these cats have been in circuses or, you know, where did they even come from originally? Was it North Africa? Morocco? Who knows? So, yeah, genetically we don't really know where George and Yami's origins are. But the other interesting thing is, oh, it's worth noting that George and Yami are not my lions, by the way. I'm merely a guardian. And actually I came across the paperwork the other day where George and Yami were basically entrusted to me by the Spanish authorities. But they are actually still owned by the Spanish authorities. So, yeah. Hello, my boy. What you say? What you say? What you say? Am I talking about you? Keeps on smelling the chicken. Grimace? There we go. That's the full-on grimace. The yummy grimace. Yeah, so I got a call from a lady named Bev, who I'm not even sure if they're married, but Chris Mercer was also, he had started this campaign against canned hunting organization. Obviously, as the name suggests, it was started to campaign against canned lion hunting. And I had met them a year or two earlier and, you know, had explained why I do what I do. You know, giving the lions a decent quality of life and the relationship enables me to do that. Otherwise, they would just be lions in cages. And Bev was really adamant that George and Yami came here because she felt that that was going to give these two lions the best quality of life that they could possibly have in a captive situation. So I got called by them and I said, no. I said, no, I'm not into or interested in having more lions. And yeah, that was that for about a day or two. And then Bev was very, very persistent and I started getting messages with videos and photographs of these two little cubs. And yeah, eventually she wore me down and I said, okay, look, yeah, we can make a plan for these two. And that obviously set the wheels in motion for George and Yami's arrival in late 2014. They arrived here at the sanctuary to bundles of joy, except they were super stressed out, especially little old George, who had rubbed his face raw on the crate on the trip from Spain to South Africa. So a shame. When he arrived, he didn't look wonderful, but they definitely adapted to their new home pretty quickly. Now it's my turn to be sniffed by Georgie. Hey, there's Yami and Duba. People hardly get to see Duba. Anyway, they settled in very quickly and yeah, the routinized walking started. So I really started walking George and Yami out in the open since they were six, seven months old. And they've been doing it ever since. And they're now 12. So as you can imagine, it's not just releasing George and Yami into the wide open and hoping for the best. This has been 12 years of, you know, solid input and regular walks and consistent application and consistent love and care and trust. Trust that's been formed and forged over a long, long period of time. So, you know, when people see the relationship with George and Yami, it isn't just a man and it's definitely not AR, but it's certainly not a man that's just walked into a lion camp and decided he's going to befriend two lions. This is 12, well, 11 and a half years, if you want to be completely accurate and 11 and a half years of constant care, love and input. That results in two lions that are pretty comfortable and confident to go walking out in the bush. Look how content they are. If that isn't evidence that these two lions have had an amazing time, then I have no idea what is. Say goodbye, Georgie. He's become a horrible cat. We'll give you regular updates. I hope you enjoyed watching that. That's Kevin and George signing off for Lion Whisperer TV. Please go and subscribe. Thank you. Cheers, guys.