Having a large Dog as a pet can be difficult at times, but imagine having a lion running around the house. This is exactly the case at Harnas Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia, Africa, where Marieta van der Merwe and her family take in injured, orphaned, and abandoned wild animals, giving them a second chance at life. The animals at Harnas include baboons, leopards, cheetahs, meerkats--and lions. The first lion to be born on Harnas was Elsa, abandoned by her mother at birth and so taken into Marieta's household for nurturing and care until she could survive on her own.
Like kittens and puppies, Elsa showed enormous curiosity, getting into every shelf and cupboard in the house and ravaging all organized workspaces. Part of the problem was that Elsa lacked siblings and she needed playmates. Using her finely tuned instinct in animal matters, Marieta introduced a beagle named Serabi to eat, sleep, and play with the lion. The two animals became inseparable, the Dog acting as a sort of maternal guide and watchful eye for the lion cub-even though the lion was so much larger and stronger right from the beginning.
Elsa lived with the family for two full years-until she had reached nearly her full growth. Adult female lions weigh anywhere from 250-400 pounds, so having a pet around the house that size was eventful, to say the least. Elsa loved her "pride" of people and treated them the way she would a pride of lions, including practicing the stealthy moves of a cat on the prowl to prepare herself for adult hunting.
Marieta recalls that "Elsa had a habit of sneaking up on people and pouncing on their backs, trying to bring them down to the ground. At first we all loved the silent attacks that sent us all into fits of giggles. Eventually, though, as Elsa got bigger and bigger, it got more dangerous-even though we had taught Elsa to retract her front claws when she attacked. First these attacks were cute, then a nuisance, and finally a real danger. But someone came up with the idea to put a bell around her neck so we would always know where Elsa was. No more surprise attacks from behind!"
Elsa loved to play rugby and soccer with Marieta's son Schalk in one of the open areas near the house. She picked up the games easily and was a true competitor. Again, she would never take out her claws, but play a fair game trying to take the ball away from Schalk. Other times, she prowled the courtyard and garden, playing with Serabi and the other Dogs.
She also loved cars and trucks-especially climbing and sleeping on top of them. Less sturdy vehicles ended up with a concave roof as Elsa grew, and visitors were warned not to park close to the house where Elsa prowled freely. Even though people were told of this habit, some continued to disbelieve the stories. The local schoolmaster visited one day and parked his brand-new car near the house. Marieta warned him to move it, but he claimed he'd only be a few minutes. An hour later he returned to his car and found that Elsa had had her fun with it, collapsing the roof, hood, and trunk, removing the rearview mirrors, chewing on the tires, and nearly dismantling the windshield.
Eventually, to protect other cars, Elsa was given a broken-down car for her own enjoyment. She quickly made it her own, sleeping and climbing into and on top of it. Sometimes she even convinced her caretakers to feed her inside it, like parking at a drive-in restaurant, the customer in the front seat awaiting her meal.
A solution to the destruction of cars came in the form of a wheelbarrow. For some reason, she was terrified of them, and the family soon learned to keep wheelbarrows handy-placed all over the farm. When visitors arrived and parked their cars, a wheelbarrow was waiting because Elsa would avoid the territory anywhere near the wheelbarrow.
After two years, though, the family decided that Elsa was too big to remain a household pet, especially since she had come into heat, something female lions do every two weeks or so until they are mated. Anyone who has had a housecat in heat knows the annoyance and distraction that can be! In hopes of breeding her, the family moved her out to a expansive enclosure with a male named Schabu, and the two of them bred, becoming the parents of many lions born on Harnas.
Schabu is dead now, but Elsa continues to live out her serene and contented life on Harnas Wildlife Sanctuary. Marieta visits her former "baby" often, slipping her hands through the fence and giving Elsa a good scratch while Elsa makes cooing and purring noises in happy remembrance of her life in Marieta's house.
Barbara Bennett is the author of a new book, Soul of a Lion, published by National Geographic Books, available on September 21, 2010.
