Only by losing his mane could a lion live happily ever after with his best buddy, a white tiger.
Cameron the lion and Zabu the tiger were rescued in 2004 from a decrepit roadside zoo where keepers had attempted to breed them in order to sell liger offspring. Big Cat Rescue in Florida took them in, but the pair’s hopes of extending their lives together here were complicated.
Big Cat Rescue understood right away that they needed to keep the pals together, so they immediately erected a massive enclosure and had Cameron vasectomy. After Cameron became violent to caretakers when his tiger companion was in heat, the keepers opted to neuter Zabu.
This worked for a while, but Cameron became increasingly protective of the tiger and finally refused to allow caretakers near them to clean or feed them. The sanctuary had to neuter him, which caused his mane to fall out.
‘While it was heartbreaking to watch Cameron lose his mane, it was absolutely worth it for him to continue living with his closest friend Zabu,’ Big Cat Rescue stated.
According to the caretakers, Cameron’s demeanor has mellowed tremendously and he appears much more comfortable in the sweltering Florida summers without the extra 15 pounds of fur around his neck.
‘He has even gotten considerably more lively now that he is no longer concerned about everything going on around his enclosure. In the early morning and late afternoon, he bats and pushes a large yellow ring around his habitat.’
Of fact, the two pals do not always get along.
‘While Cameron spends much of the day sleeping (like lions do in the wild), Zabu is incredibly active and always urging him to play,’ the sanctuary noted. ‘She’ll frequently abandon him in favor of running, jumping, and playing with her huge red globe ball.’
The New Hampshire Zoo, where Cameron and Zabu were born, has now closed. Their prior owners had attempted to hybridize the two in order to create ligers, which are genetically altered cross-breeds that can have birth abnormalities that endure throughout the animals’ lives.
Zabu, a Siberian-Bengal hybrid tiger, was also born with abnormalities as a result of inbreeding. Her reduced top lip revealed and displayed her teeth.
Cameron the lion had dropped more than 200 pounds due to malnutrition before coming to Big Cat Rescue. Fortunately, he was rehabilitated at the shelter, which also houses over 80 abused or abandoned large cats.
Tigers, lions, leopards, cougars, bobcats, lynx, servals, ocelots, caracals, jungle cats, and a Geoffroy’s cat are among the animals at Big Cat Rescue.
