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00:00 Lion Rescue is back on, Ukraine to Yorkshire Wildlife Park.
00:04 Eiza and her three cubs, Teddy, Emi and Santa,
00:08 traumatised by the devastating war in Ukraine.
00:12 Dramatically rescued from a private facility in the war zone to sanctuary in Poland.
00:17 They need specialist care and rehabilitation,
00:20 as do so many of these forgotten animals from the war zone.
00:24 Back in 2010, Yorkshire Wildlife Park was made famous for rescuing 13 lions
00:29 from Romania. Now 13 years on, we have space in our
00:33 wonderful 10 acre reserve. To give these lions from Ukraine a
00:39 fantastic, wonderful life and the care that they so deserve,
00:43 Yorkshire Wildlife Park is committed to making this happen.
00:48 Colin Northcutt from Yorkshire Wildlife Park has been to assess the lions in
00:52 their temporary facility. Colin spent a week with the lions to
00:56 assess how they were. They were terrified and confused, but
01:00 gradually they got to know him and relaxed. We just need to get them
01:06 back to Yorkshire Wildlife Park so we can rehabilitate them to a normal life
01:10 and let them be lions again. Let's get them home by Christmas.
01:15 We can't save every animal in need, but we can help this family
01:20 and raise awareness of those who are helping these forgotten animals from the
01:23 war zone.
01:26 Hello, my name is Colin Northcutt and I'm the Deputy Head of Section
01:33 on the Carnivores at Yorkshire Wildlife Park.
01:37 Now I'm here in Poznan in Poland to have a look at some lions that were
01:42 rescued from the war zone in Ukraine.
01:46 Yorkshire Wildlife Park are going to be taking on four of these lions,
01:51 three cubs and mum. The cubs are only about eight, nine months old and
01:57 mum is about three and a half years old and
02:01 the cubs are Teddy, Amy, Santa and mum is called Asia. The cubs are very,
02:08 very nervous, really scared, which as you can imagine
02:12 is pretty terrifying coming from a war zone.
02:15 Part of my job here is to try and help calm them
02:19 and make a familiar face for them so that when they come to Yorkshire
02:24 they have something that they recognize and will hopefully help them to settle in
02:29 a little bit quicker. Mum Asia has already settled in very,
02:33 very well and she's very, very calm so hopefully when they make the big move
02:38 to Yorkshire they will be just as settled.
02:43 Now they currently don't have any outside area because unfortunately
02:46 the area is taken up by tigers which were also rescued from Ukraine.
02:51 Bosnan Zoo here has done a fantastic job in taking on some of these animals
02:56 and I'm very, very happy to be involved with
02:59 helping to bring some of them back to Yorkshire
03:03 and hopefully give them a fantastic life in sunny England.
03:09 So this is mum, she's fairly friendly, she's quite
03:15 quite calm, not as panicky as the cubs are.
03:20 Now if I go around a bit further you'll see the cubs and straight away they
03:26 do retreat into the cover of the platform here
03:32 and they will probably start hissing and spitting at me.
03:37 They are growling, they are still very, very nervous.
03:44 That's Teddy underneath and the two girls.
03:51 Now although they have names no one knows who is who. They've not been
03:58 microchipped and that's happening next week so
04:02 nobody actually knows which one is which so
04:05 you're gonna have to kind of guess that one
04:09 and assign names to them but that's Teddy underneath.
04:14 This is actually much better than it has been because
04:18 they are normally very, very hissy and spitty at me
04:24 and they're not too bad today so they definitely seem to be getting used to my
04:28 presence here and the fact that this one is out
04:31 is a bit of a breakthrough because it took them two or three hours to come
04:35 out when I first arrived so this is fantastic.
04:39 Now these two pens are basically their home for the time being
04:44 until they come to Yorkshire. The reason they've been separated
04:49 is because when they first arrived obviously they
04:52 transport they had to be separated for transport so when they first arrived and
04:56 they tried to mix them back together again
04:58 as you're here did actually attack them and cause a few minor injuries
05:07 and because they don't have an outside area they
05:10 are reluctant to put them together again
05:14 in this situation because it's not really an escape route for them
05:18 and it can be quite dangerous so main mixing will happen back at
05:24 Yorkshire and we'll see how that goes when they
05:28 get there so hopefully it won't be too long.
05:31 Cubs come back forward again see what I was up to.
05:35 When I first arrived they were walking the front but
05:45 they've unfortunately gone straight back into their usual position of cowering
05:50 they're very, very nervous.
05:53 So the male on the left and the female are a little bit calmer today but the female over in the corner
06:13 as you can see is still very, very nervous if I get anywhere near the bars
06:18 she hisses and spits quite badly, quite stressful.
06:24 First time feeding from the tongs let's see what she does.
06:30 Come on then.
06:40 Good girl. Can you try? And a keeper, Camilla. Look at that.
06:49 Excellent.
07:08 Good girl, good girl. Now she knows what it is.
07:14 Good girl.
07:19 Excellent.
07:37 She would not have done this a few days ago.
07:41 This is great.
07:46 Much more relaxed than yesterday.
07:50 I think they're more comfortable with my presence.
08:05 They really do not like sweeping. That's evident.
08:10 Absolutely brilliant. I'm very, very happy with this. Very pleased in such a short space of time.
08:34 This is my last day so having them this relaxed with me around it is absolutely brilliant for
08:45 such a short space of time. I think it's been quite a successful trip with this.
08:49 That's fantastic. I mean it doesn't look it on camera but that's very,
08:55 very close to me. I'm only a few feet from the mesh.