Christian the Lion: The Wild Animal Who Remembered the Men Who Raised Him

In 1969, two young Australians walked into Harrods department store in London and walked out with a lion cub. This was legal at the time. You could buy a lion at Harrods.

What happened next is still one of the most remarkable wildlife reunions ever documented.

The Cub

John Rendall and Ace Berg paid 250 guineas for the cub. They named him Christian. They brought him home to a flat above a furniture shop on the King's Road in Chelsea. The owner of the shop, Antony Fitzherbert, let them keep him. Christian grew up in Chelsea. He played in the shop. He went to a private garden in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea for exercise. People passing the shop would stop to stare through the window.

He was, by all accounts, a gentle animal. The problem was that he was growing. By 1970, Christian weighed nearly 90 kilograms and stood at almost a full-grown lion's height. Keeping him in a Chelsea apartment was no longer reasonable, and finding a zoo that would take him was proving difficult.

George Adamson

Through the actor Bill Travers and his wife Virginia McKenna, who had starred in Born Free, Rendall and Berg were connected to George Adamson, a wildlife conservationist working in the Kora region of Kenya. Adamson agreed to take Christian and attempt to reintegrate him into the wild. He had done this before with other lions.

In August 1970, Christian was flown to Kenya. The reintegration process took months. Adamson worked carefully, introducing him to the wilderness, teaching him to hunt, eventually integrating him with a wild pride. By 1971, Christian was living wild. He had a pride of his own.

The Reunion

In 1971, Rendall and Berg flew to Kenya to see him one last time before he disappeared fully into the wild. Adamson warned them that Christian might not remember them. It had been a year. He was a different animal now.

They drove out to find him. When Christian saw them, he ran toward them at full speed. Then he stopped, put his paws on their shoulders, and nuzzled their faces. He remembered.

The reunion was filmed. In 2007, someone posted the footage to YouTube with an overlay of Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You." It was viewed tens of millions of times. For many people, it was the first time they had heard of Christian the lion.

Watch the Episode

If You Love Wildlife

Browse our From Paw to Tail store.

For Christian the Lion and wildlife rehabilitation books, search Christian the Lion and wildlife rehabilitation books on Amazon.

Find Christian and other true animal story prints, shirts, and mugs in our Etsy shop.

Sources

• Wikipedia — Christian the lion — Sourced account of the purchase at Harrods, the rehabilitation by George Adamson in Kenya, and the 1971 reunion
• The Guardian — Christian the lion: the story behind the viral video — The Guardian's account of how the 1971 reunion footage went viral in 2007, reaching tens of millions of viewers, and the full backstory of Rendall, Berg, and the King's Road years
• Smithsonian Magazine — Can Animals Recognize People Years Later? — Smithsonian's examination of the 1971 reunion as a case study in long-term mammalian memory and the behavioral science behind cross-species recognition after extended separation
• George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust — The organization continuing George Adamson's conservation work at Kora National Reserve in Kenya; holds historical records of the 1970 reintegration process and Christian's gradual integration into a wild pride over more than a year
• History.com — Christian the Lion's Heartwarming Reunion — Historical account of the Harrods purchase and King's Road years through the Kora release and the 1971 reunion footage that became one of the most watched wildlife videos ever recorded

More true animal stories: From Paw to Tail Blog