Kevin Richardson (born 8 October 1974), known as "The Lion Whisperer, is a South African animal behaviourist who has worked extensively with native animals of Africa.Richardson has worked with big cats and relies on intuition rather than static rules. He has slept next to, fed, and lived with lions.
Richardson rejects the traditional notion that lions should be mastered and dominated, preferring to develop a relationship over time, based on love and respect."A lion is not a possession; it's a sentient being, so you must pay attention and develop your bond like with any relationship."
Richardson has been scratched, punctured and bitten but never in a malicious way. Richardson is not dissuaded by these dangers. In an interview, he mentions, "Obviously one realizes the danger when working with animals of this calibre, I've weighed the pros and I've weighed the cons, and the pros far outweigh the cons." He warns about following in his footsteps, however. All the pictures of his adventures do not portray his years of experience and bonding. "People like to take things out of context. They don't know the relationship I have with this lion." As a rule, Richardson only interacts with lions he has been with since their birth.Richardson also differentiates his work from that of professional zoologists interacting with completely wild animals they have not raised, or that of trainers whose animals are required to perform on stage day after day.[13]
The lion population in Africa has dropped from about 350,000 to an estimated 25,000 during a fifteen-year-span. Richardson hopes the media attention of his movies will raise public awareness and educate them on the need to protect and conserve Africa's animals. Lion hunts in South Africa garner more than 90 million dollars (£60 million) a year according to the Professional Hunters Association. Between September 2006-September 2007, 16,394 foreign hunters (more than half of whom fly from the U.S.) killed 46,000+ animals. Trophy hunting is worth $91.2 million a year and foreign tourists sometimes pay up to $40,000 to shoot a lion. The government supports hunting because of this revenue and the provincial governments sell permits to kill rhinoceroses, lions, elephants, and giraffes. 1,050 lions were killed in 2008.
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