Lions are once again thriving in the nature reserve which inspired one of the best-loved wildlife films of all time – Born Free.
In the 1980s, Kenya’s Meru Conservation Area was overrun with poachers, who decimated its wildlife. But thanks to a partnership between the Kenya Wildlife Service and Britain’s Born Free Foundation, the poaching has been stemmed.
The park has been restocked with animals and there are now about 80 lions roaming free and giving birth to new litters of cubs.
Born Free’s “Last Lions of Meru?” fightback is giving hope to Africa’s lions which are sliding towards extinction. The reserve was the setting for the 1966 movie starring Virginia McKenna and her husband Bill Travers, who died, aged 72, in 1994.
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