Where Chows Raise Lions

Who is ever in the position to see how Chows match with lions? Martine Waldeck was, because of her extraordinary job at a game farm in South Africa. For one year she lived surrounded by lions. Her Chows entertained the lion cubs and the bitch proved to be a wonderful nanny. (J Leunissen-Rooseboom)

 

As I was born in Holland, I never had the privilege to see a lot of wild animals. Even when I went to live in Switzerland for about nine years, wildlife was limited to foxes, rabbits, and the occasional deer which lived in the Alps. Animals were always a big part of my life. As I decided to emigrate to South Africa in 1995, it was no question that my horse should come along; fourteen years later, he is still with me.

During my first job in South Africa, when I worked as a dog beautician, I met my first Chow Chow. He was brought in by his owner for a cut and bath, and boy, was that an eye opening experience for me. This beautiful male Chow let me do anything I wanted, cooperating justfine. But that was it, only cooperating. No emotion at all. I really did not know what to expect from this, although very good behaved, dog on-his-own-planet. But as his owner came to fetch him, he turned around likea leaf in the wind. Bouncing up and down, silly talking, and most of all, absolutely smiling. Shortly after this experience, I got my dream job at the local vet. Working as a receptionist and assisting with operations, I met my second Chow. Her behaviour was exactly the same, and although the vet (and many others after him) told me that “one could never know with a Chow”, this is when I decided to get one of those magnificent creatures for myself.

MY FIRST CHOWS
This happened in 1998 when I got a red male and a cinnamon female. Both unregistered, but absolutely true to the Chow image and character. Needless to say, I loved them dearly. Sadly, after five years, the male fell into one of the big irrigation canals, got water in his lungs, and had to be put down. A year later, the female contracted deadly tick fever, despite all precautions being taken. No longer could I live without Chow, so in 2005 I got my first registered red female, and half a year later a blue registered male arrived. At the beginning of 2006, I took the opportunity to become a game farm manager. There was a house on the 2600 hectare farm which I moved into, a lovely chapel, a truly African bar complete with a lot of wild animal trophies and a huge swimming pool. The owners were busy building tourist chalets and a hall for weddings, complete with stage and all. Everything thatched, to fit in nicely with the bush. It was amazing to ride with my horse between giraffes, buffalos, waterbuck, antilopes, gemsbuck, sable antilopes, kudus, because you can go much closer to the game than when driving a vehicle. Meeting zebras was a bit of a problem while on horseback: as my horse is still an intact stallion, he always wanted to challenge and fight those little striped ponies.

 

LIONS
Besides the thirty different species of game, there were also about a hundred lions on the game farm. They were the main income for the farm: they were bred and their offspring was sold to other game farms. The lions were kept in enclosures all around the house, meaning there was only a five meter wide passage between my garden and them. It was an indescribable feeling being woken up each morning by all those lions literally roaring on the doorstep.

According to surrounding neighbours, the sound of the lions roaring could be heard about fifteen kilometres away. Strangely enough, the Chows only looked at the lions for the first few days. After that, they did not take any notice of the lions outside their Chow territory. The lions however, kept stalking the Chows along the fence as they played together in the garden.

 

HANDREARING
One of my duties was to hand rear lion cubs. The reason for the decision to hand rear the cubs is that lions, despite their social nature, tend to kill and eat each others cubs. Both males and females try to only have their own offspring around. But the adults were kept in groups so that was made impossible for them. The cubs were taken away from their mothers on the second or third day, after they had their crucial amount of colostrum. Then I bottle fed them with a mixture of normal milk, cream, egg white, gelatine, cooking oil and a specific vitamin powder, four to five times a day.

 

 

 

PLAYING
When I started working on the farm, there were already hand reared lion cubs of about two to three months old. They were kept in an enclosure next to the house. One day as I went into this enclosure, both Chows sneaked in with me. It did not take five minutes for lion cubs and Chows to become playmates. They ran around, Chow chasing lion, then lion chasing Chow, bowling each other over, grabbing each other’s ears and tails. All of them seemed to have the time of their life. Nobody got hurt or violent. So from then on, I let them play together every day for a while.

As the cubs grew older, their playing technique changed a lot. They started to use their claws and teeth, and tried to stalk both dogs and me from behind. From about four months old, playing with lions was a no-no for all of us. The cubs went to live in bigger enclosures, where they could play as rough with each other as they liked. Even if they are hand reared, from about five months old the cubs turn into little big lions. It was not safe any more to go in with them, as they really try to take you to the ground. And if one of them gets excited, all of them join in. No matter how much human contact they may have had in their early lives, they will always stay wild and follow their natural instincts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NANNY
As with all small animal babies, lion cubs had to be stimulated to defecate after they had had their bottle. That was where my Chow bitch came in. I was feeding the cubs in the garden, which was quite a messy business. When I was finished with the feeding Chow Tara started licking their faces clean of spoiled milk, and then their behinds until they did their business.

 

 

 

 

Tara had had pups about three months before she started to help me with the lion cubs. She did not have milk any more herself, but her mother instinct took over totally. She would lie on the grass and let them crawl all over her playing with her tail, it was unbelievable. The first month of their lives the cubs lived in a big box in the house, and Tara was on voluntary duty every time I took them out to feed or play. Shiyling, my male Chow, was a bit more cautious with the little cubs.

The year I spend rearing lions was absolutely amazing. I learned that although the cubs are sweet at such a young age when hand reared, they quickly grow into unpredictable wild animals, which have to be treated with respect and cautiousness at all times. We now have our own business and again the Chows regularly keep us company at work. Our family exists of Johann and me, the Chows Tara, Shyiling’s and Tara’s beautiful red daughter Yangzi, new Chow puppy Kantosho, my ‘old’ horse and his son, and a Bull Terrier, a Jack Russell, two cats and three birds. Unfortunately Shyiling died in an accident.

Tara’s motherly feelings are now directed to anything smaller than herself and she has helped a lot of new additions to our family feel at home more easily. Cats, Bull Terriers, Jack Russells, you name it. If she has pups herself, she makes no difference in her own kids or other hungry mouths. She has the most wonderful character you can imagine. It definitely reflects in all of the Waldeck family.

 

Where Chows raise lions' was published in The World of Chows in 2007 and 2008
ISBN 978-90-76717-29-6
www.bbpress.nl