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

Harrods, January 1969

John Rendall and Anthony "Ace" Bourke were Australians living in London. They walked into Harrods' exotic animal department and came out with a lion cub that cost 250 guineas. His name was Christian.

They kept him in the basement of a furniture shop on the King's Road in Chelsea. He slept in the showroom, played among the furniture, and was exercised daily in the Moravian Cemetery in Chelsea, the only open space nearby willing to let a lion use it. Neighbors knew about him. The local pub was fine with it. London in 1969 was a different place.

The Problem

By 1970, Christian weighed around 35 kilograms and was still growing. London genuinely has no place for a lion, and Rendall and Bourke knew it. They had to find somewhere he could go that was more than a zoo enclosure.

Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, the actors who had starred in Born Free, heard about Christian and helped arrange a solution. George Adamson, the conservationist who had worked with lions at Kora National Reserve in Kenya for decades, agreed to take him. Christian flew to Kenya in July 1970 and began the long process of being reintroduced to the wild.

December 1971 — The Return

A year and a half later, Rendall and Bourke flew back to Kora. Adamson met them at the airstrip and warned them: Christian had been living wild for over a year. He had his own territory, his own patterns. He might not know them. A fully grown wild lion who didn't remember you was not a safe situation.

They went out into the bush anyway. Christian appeared in the distance, moving slowly. Then something in him shifted. He ran. He leapt up, wrapped both front legs around Rendall's shoulders, and buried his face against his. Then he did the same to Bourke.

A lion that had been wild for over a year. The reunion was filmed on 8mm. The footage was uploaded to YouTube in 2008 and has since been watched hundreds of millions of times.

1974

Christian was last confirmed seen in 1974, leading his own pride in the bush at Kora. He never returned to the humans again. He had gone where he was supposed to go.

John Rendall said the last visit, before 1974, felt like a goodbye. Like Christian knew he wouldn't be back.

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Sources

• Rendall, John and Anthony Bourke. A Lion Called Christian (Doubleday, 2009).
• George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trust, Kora National Reserve, Kenya.

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