One malnourished lioness had spent her life confined to an apartment. Another was so shell-shocked she could barely walk.
They are among five traumatized lions rescued from the war zone in Ukraine who are settling into a new home in England after an international effort to bring them to safety.
Male African lion Rori and lionesses Amani, Lira and Vanda arrived this month at the Big Cat Sanctuary after a 12-hour journey by road and ferry from temporary homes at zoos and animal shelters in Belgium. They join lioness Yuna, who arrived in August, at the sanctuary’s new Lion Rescue Center, which officially opens on Tuesday.
All five were found near the front line in Ukraine’s war against Russian invasion, neglected and abandoned by their owners.
“All of these five lions were originally from the illegal pet trade and wildlife trade,” said Cameron Whitnall, managing director of the Big Cat Sanctuary near Ashford, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of London. “None of them came from zoos.”
Yuna was kept in a small brick cell and was shellshocked after missile debris fell near her enclosure. Rori was mistreated in a private menagerie, while sanctuary staff believe siblings Amani and Lira were bred to have their photos taken with tourists as cubs.
Vanda, kept inside an apartment, was malnourished and infested with parasites.
Whitnall says in her new home Vanda, like the others, can “become the lion she deserves to be.”
The lions were saved by the Wild Animals Rescue Center run by Natalia Popova, a Ukrainian woman who has saved hundreds of abandoned pets and zoo animals since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Lions, tigers, leopards, wolves, deer, monkeys and more have passed through her shelter, a converted horse stables near Kyiv.
Hundreds have been sent abroad for treatment and recovery. Whitnall was determined to bring the five lions to Britain, even though the sanctuary had nowhere to put them. A fundraising campaign launched in May 2024 raised more than 500,000 pounds ($650,000) to cover the costs of transportation, veterinary care and building a new home for the cats.
Staff say they are adapting well to their enclosures, which have been designed around each lion’s individual needs. Yuna and Rori, who have coordination issues, got gently landscaped environments where they can’t fall from a height, while sisters Amani and Lira have trees to climb. Vanda, the most playful and confident of the lions, has an enclosure that includes a water feature.
“I’m sure it’s a bit of a journey. We've got more to do, but they are taking everything so incredibly well,” said curator Briony Smith, who looks after the animals. “You can already tell that there is improvement in their care and their welfare and the way that they feel about that.”
Smith and Whitnall are still getting to know their four newest charges. They have already formed a strong bond with Yuna, who had never been on grass until she was rescued.
“She could barely walk,” Whitnall said. “She was suffering from shellshock and concussion. She was so severely bad that they were actually going to euthanize her. But we managed to step in and get her out of the war zone, and she’s just come on leaps and bounds since being here at the sanctuary.
“We’re just so happy with her progress,” said Whitnall, who enjoys feeding Yuna her favorite snack of raw chicken legs. “She’s a beautiful lioness now.”
___
Video journalist Tom Rayner contributed to this story.
