A Man and His Pride

Kevin Richardson has a huge family of thirty-eight members. The unusual thing is that he’s the only human. Kevin, who lives on a vast private reserve in Johannesburg, has a pride of thirty-eight lions.
Pets Team 28 October 2010

Kevin Richardson has a huge family of thirty-eight members. The unusual thing is that he’s the only human. Kevin, who lives on a vast private reserve in Johannesburg, has a pride of thirty-eight lions.

He was first introduced to two lion cubs eleven years ago. Both of them are now adult lions and are part of the pride that lives on his reserve. The entire pride was hand-raised by Kevin and are familiar with him. They tackle him and wrestle him like they would one of their own. It’s not everyday you witness a man calling out to lions with a roar of his own, even more surprising is how the lions emerge from their habitat and stride toward him, the earth vibrating as they return his call.

Kevin admits that the lions could easily hurt him, or kill him even, but he refuses to go into the reserve with any type of weapon. Kevin asserts that if the lions do kill him one day, they would not be apportioned any blame. His love for his big cats is obvious. Kevin says “I know they could kill me in a second. But that doesn’t bother me. If I came back to life, I would do it all again.”

Just as apparent is the strong bond he has with his lions; a lionness who is particularly devoted to Kevin will follow him into the river and play with him. Lions in the wild typically shun water as they are wary of predators such as alligators and crocodiles. While lionnesses are usually fiercely protective of their cubs, the mothers in the pride seem relaxed when Kevin played with them.

The lions in Kevin’s care may be hand-raised but they are not tame. They reside on Kevin’s vast reserve with plenty of space to roam free and have thus retained their wild instincts. The young cubs are especially skittish as they have never been hand reared so a human may cause them to become defensive. But Kevin is a natural – he strokes them as though they were house pets and not the kings of the animal world.

Kevin’s work is awe-inspiring even as he lays on the ground with his pride as they jostle one another, competing to be petted and rubbed.