Pets Hunters

Leo the Lion is the mascot for the Hollywood film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and one of its predecessors, Goldwyn Pictures, featured in the studio's production logo.

Slats was the first lion used for the newly-formed MGM studio. He was born at Dublin Zoo, Ireland on March 20, 1919. The photo above is Slats the Lion being filmed for his cinematic debut as the MGM Logo, c. 1924.

Slats was used on all black-and-white MGM films between 1924 and 1928. Slats was trained to growl rather than roar (although in the logo he did nothing but look around), and for the next couple of years, the lion would tour with MGM promoters to signify the studio's launch.

Slats died in 1936. His skin is now on display at the McPherson Museum, in Kansas.


The original logo was designed by Howard Dietz and used by the Goldwyn Pictures Corporation studio from 1916 to 1924.

PHOTO 1: via The Daily What
PHOTO 2: Wikipedia

Three white lion cubs are presented to the public for the first time at the city zoo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday Jan. 5, 2011. The cubs were born on Nov. 16, 2010. According to zoo officials these are the first white lions to be born in South America.

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AP Photo/Eduardo Di Baia

This incredible scene was captured minutes after a herd of buffalo tried to drive a lioness and her babies from their den.

The watchful lioness carefully nestled each one-day-old cub between her jaws and padded to a nearby bush for safety in Okavago, Botswana.

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(via Dilidoo)

"The red one, Dad!"

"Can we get the red one, please?"



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José Luis García from Córdoba has less than a month to find a new home for Sandof, the lion who’s been with him for three years and who will lose his home because of plans to extend Córdoba Airport.

José Luis runs a small zoo and is losing his land before the end of the month to make space for the new extension. Among the other animals which must move from the zoo are six pythons, one of which is an albino.

Contacts with other zoos in Spain have been unsuccessful in finding a new home for Sandof as the lion is a male, and cannot be housed with any other male lion.

Señor García is hoping that his idea of giving him away as a package with the pythons may save Sandof from being put down.

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Read the story in the Daily Mail about British park ranger Alex Larenty who regularly treats eight year old lion Jamu to a foot massage and a hug.

(The shots were taken at The Lion Park, near Johannesburg, South Africa, just weeks before a man who broke into the reserve was mauled and killed.)

Most people know that it's not true that cats have a fear of water. Some cats actually like to swim.

But it is pretty rare to catch wild cats enjoying a dip.

Photographer Per Gunnar Ostby, was very fortunate to capture three female lions enjoying their swim one crisp, dawn morning on a trek near the Chobe National Park in Botswana.



Source: Daily Mail

Photos: Per Gunnar Ostby

Watch video

Photo credit: AFP/File/Andrej Isakovic

(photo via Cellar)

Six adorable white lion cubs – born to two different mothers – help form the world’s largest pride of this striking species in captivity. The cubs take the number of white lions at West Midland Safari Park in Worcestershire to 19.

The park’s white lion collection has grown from four animals who were introduced in 2004.

The lions are not albino but are a rare mutation of lion found in a 200-square-mile area called Timbavati, in South Africa’s bush country.

According to African folklore, once every hundred years, magical white lions will be born bringing joy to those who witness them.

Source: Mail online

Between 1907 and 1938, Jim Corbett killed a dozen large cats who were collectively blamed for more than 1,500 human deaths. While being hailed as India's most celebrated hunter of man-eaters, Corbett developed a vast respect for tigers and leopards. Years spent stalking intelligent and powerful predators through the forests convinced him that these were graceful creatures that deserved respect. Even these man-eaters held his respect, for he understood that they were merely adapting to their desperate circumstances. "The stress of circumstances is, in nine cases out of ten, wounds, and in the tenth case old age," Corbett once wrote, "Human beings are not the natural prey of tigers, and it is only when tigers have been incapacitated through wounds or old age that, in order to survive, they are compelled to take to a diet of human flesh." Indeed, Corbett admired the wild tiger as "a large-hearted gentleman with boundless courage", and he urged India's people to rally for the conservation of "the finest of her fauna."

Read the rest of this fascinating biography at Damn Interesting.

*****A martial arts teacher knocked over by a lion during a photo shoot at Bowmanville Zoo says she is happy to have come away with four broken ribs and a bloodied lung.

The photo session produced a successful cover photo, but from the beginning, the lion was playful and not entirely under the control of its two minders. Watch video.
(thestar.com)

***** A keeper at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C, was taken to a hospital and treated for a laceration on her leg after Tai Shan, the zoo's giant panda cub, made "physical contact" with her. It seems the panda had amorous intentions - the keeper was not in the mood. (via)
(Washington Post)

***** An eagle ray leaped onto a boat off the Florida Keys and stabbed a woman with its barb, knocking her to the deck and killing her. The animal's barb had impaled the woman through the neck which caused her to fall back and hit her head on some portion of the boat.
(New Zealand Herald)

***** Chicago car dealers report they've seen a lot more vehicles damaged this year by animals getting under hoods and chewing on wiring. The culprits are typically squirrels, rats or mice. Whether they're taking shelter from the cold or chewing out of hunger, they can cause thousands of dollars in damages.
(Sun-Times)

***** Rats are invading Thailand - or at least the offices of the ministry responsible for promoting health and hygiene. In the past two days, nearly 50 rats were caught inside the Health Ministry compound in Bangkok, prompting an announcement of a national anti-rodent campaign. The animals have become a nuisance. They bite wires, cables, documents and destroy office equipment.
(AP)

***** Four steer who escaped from a transport truck during a morning accident made their way to a residential area in Mississauga, Ont. and held the community hostage for nearly four hours.

One steer was eventually shot after it knocked a couple of residents off their feet and charged a police officer.
(ctv.ca)

The Latin name of Panthera leo krugeri is not limited to white lions. It applies to all South African lion subspecies; the prides of which are mostly located in Kruger National Park and nearby game reserves.

White lions are not albino as they have pigmentation which shows particularly in eye, paw pad and lip colour. The correct term for their condition is leucism, a state where there is near-normal eye colour, but loss of pigment in the skin and fur.

The cause of the unusual colouration is the same as for the white tiger. A recessive gene which results in the white appearance is found in a very small number of captive lions.

White specimens usually have a yellowish-brown or golden eye color which is very similar to their tawny cousins, though some have bluish coloring like the white tiger.

A Swiss zoo has provoked public dismay by culling two endangered Namibian lion cubs because it did not have space for them.

In June, Basel Zoo proudly announced that a five-year-old lioness, imported from Namibia, had given birth to four cubs; three males and one female. However, last week the zoo decided to put two of the male cubs to sleep and feed their carcasses to other animals. It explained that the lion enclosure was not big enough for them and said it could not find another zoo to adopt them.

The lions in Basel Zoo are on the World Conservation Union's red list of endangered species because hunting has reduced their population in Namibia to a few hundred.