First Encounters

I do not remember the first time I saw a lion in real life. I have vague memories of having the chance to take a picture with one as a child, but the details of that escape me. Truthfully, it was not until viewing The Lion King that I ever paid any true attention to the big cats outside of passing fancy. A discussion of all the effects of that movie would be superfluous, so I'll focus on the effect that matters—a curiosity about lions. The Lion King(TLK), for all the talk of "target audience", caused its creators to study lions for some time. One of the quotes that can be found in early 'Making-of' style films on TLK is "We tried to stay true to the animal." This struck me as an interesting statement. I did not cognitively interpret it as an attempt, but understood the implication—some elements of TLK (regarding lions in particular) had to have been true.

This led me into a long stretch of researching that lasted many years. I started with every video documentary that I could get my hands on. If there was ever a lion on TV, then I wanted to find out why and in what context. From there, I moved into the literature—studying the works of George and Joy Adamson first, then moving up to Schaller, and the more recent Parker. Any opportunity that presented itself in school was also used as a chance to focus in on my hobby-topic—giving me the chance to really get into the process of writing papers focusing on lions.

While I took the chance to visit zoos and dream, I did not have the opportunity to meet a lion until almost 8 years after my research started. As part of my collegiate scholarship, I was allowed a "Travel Study", which meant that I got a grant to go anywhere in the world to study anything I wanted to, fully funded. Naturally, my first inclination was to go to Africa and chase wild lions there. But, as I discovered, those holding the keys to African wildlife are difficult to contact and even more difficult to convince. So I opted instead to study the big cats in the Americas—a topic which led me into even more intrigue. The first part of my study took me out to the Nevada desert where I met my first lions.

The enclosure where they were kept was about fifty yards away from the house. A tall fence of about fifteen or twenty feet was the only elevation in an otherwise barren scrub. As I walked toward the enclosure with the caretakers, I could see the cats milling around inside. In spite of a large enclosure (one side of the square was probably fifty feet), they gathered at the front—curious about the newcomer approaching their territory. There were three cats there, two lions and one tiger (yes, they were in the same enclosure). The tiger watched me from his covered den—ears alert and body still. Next to him, a male lion watched my approach with intense amber eyes. It was the lioness who paced in front of the fence, becoming more and more excited as I approached. The caretakers introduced me to each; Detonator, the tiger; Rocky, the lion; and Nala, the lioness.

There was radiance about them—a heat that seemed to rise above that of the sweltering desert and reach out from each of them. I found my legs becoming weak with the sheer power of presence. My mind reeled as if it were being physically probed. And the sense of wonder that is constantly blunted by research became razor sharp again and cut through any doubt I had that this was where I wanted to be. Standing in their phenomenal presence was intoxicating. My soul was reborn and reunited with its purpose in those few moments. In spite of all the years of research, as I stood there and watched them, I felt the overwhelming realization that there was a lot to learn…