Free Part of the Pride by Kevin Richardson Page B

the park. I got on well with the new man. I’m sure a lot of the people at the park didn’t know what to make of me. Here I was, the big boss’s “informant,” who spent a lot of his time in the enclosures with the lions, forming relationships with them. I’m sure there were a few raised eyebrows.
    One person who definitely found my methods unorthodox was Alex, a lion trainer from England; Richard had hired him before he left the park. Alex only ever went in with the lions if he was carrying a stick, as this was accepted practice where he was from, and for keepers in general. Tau and Napoleon, however, weren’t used to people carrying sticks around them, even if this was the accepted way of working with lions.
    Tau didn’t respond well to Alex, and Alex preferred not to work with him. His recommendation was that Tau was not a workable lion and that the park should consider selling him. He said Tau couldn’t be trusted because of his clear eyes. Tau and Napoleonwere getting bigger by this stage and developing their manes. They were no longer cubs and some people were getting concerned about my safety. They were worried about me bending down in front of them, and couldn’t believe I had begun hand-feeding them pieces of meat and letting them drink water out of my hands. These were other things one was never supposed to do with lions, but I’d been doing it for months.
    Rodney, who by this stage was almost like my father, took me aside one day at the park. “I’ve heard about some of the things you’re doing with the lions, Kevin, and I’m worried. You roll around on the ground with them, playing . . . maybe you’re getting too physical with them.”
    â€œRod, I’m just sitting with them, that’s all,” I said, omitting the bit about how I put my hands in their mouth and grabbed them by the canines, or how I tugged on their tongues.
    â€œWhat if they jump on you one day for real?”
    Others thought I was entirely loopy when they saw me playing with Tau’s teeth and pulling his tongue.
    To be fair to other trainers, the other difference between them and me was that I was not training Tau and Napoleon, or any of the other animals, to work on film or television commercials or do anything in particular. I was simply establishing relationships with many of the residents of the Lion Park, and in the process Tau, Napoleon, and I were becoming even closer—almost like three brothers. I was doing all this because I wanted to, and because I thought they were enjoying the interaction, as well—not in order to teach them to do tricks in front of a camera.
    The Lion Park was approached to help with the filming of a television commercial, and the advertising company wanted a lion with a well-developed mane.
    At the time, Tau and Napoleon were our most mature male lions,and Ian, who had been dealing with the clients, asked me if I would like to be involved.
    â€œWhat do you say?” he said. “You’ve got a good relationship with Tau and Napoleon. Do you think you could get one of them to walk from left to right in front of a camera?”
    It seemed pretty simple. Richard, the former manager, had begun to establish a relationship with Napoleon, but after he had left it had just been me inside the enclosure with the two boys, and Alex, the trainer, had already made it clear he didn’t want to work with Tau.
    So I found myself working on a film set with Tau and Napoleon as star and stand-in.
    When the day arrived I wasn’t so sure it was going to be easy, but when the camera crew was set up behind the safety of a lion-proof cage, I called to Tau. He walked from left to right in front of the camera. “Good boy, that’s my boy, Tau,” I said. I scratched and hugged his big, maned head and fed him a piece of meat.
    I hadn’t trained the lions to respond to the offer of food—I hadn’t trained them at all, in