A lion born at a Kent wildlife park has made its first kill since being returned to the wild,
The male, named Azi, was born at Port Lympne Hotel and Reserve, near Hythe, but has lived in South Africa since the age of one and ten months.
The three-year-old’s milestone marks the first time a lion born in captivity in the UK has made a kill in the wild, after stalking a herd of zebras across grassland, MailOnline reports.
In his early days, Azi and his brother Zazu were hand-reared by the team at The Aspinall Foundation, a conservation charity run by Damian Aspinall, which aims to give animals born in captivity the opportunity to live in the wild.
Although they were born at Port Lympne Reserve, the pair were transferred to Howletts Wild Animal Park after being rejected by their pride as a cubs.
They were then relocated from Howletts to a specialist 500-acre sanctuary in South Africa a few months before their second birthday.
At the sanctuary, Love Lions Alive, Azi and Zazu were introduced to a new climate and fed a different diet to prepare them to hunt for themselves.
As part of this preparation, the lions were given an irregular feeding pattern to mimic the eating schedule of lions in the wild – who usually gorge feed twice a week.
The sanctuary includes wild zebra and impala, to allow the big cats to practise hunting prey animals to become independent.
The Aspinall Foundation said: “We always believed that this relocation would give Azi and Zazu the best future possible.
“The ‘zooracrats’ insisted it would never work and advised that captive-born lions would never learn to fend for themselves, but once again we have proved them wrong.
“It brings us immense joy to see the boys living life in the wild rather than languishing in a zoo.”
The final stage of the lions’ journey will see them released into a larger protected wilderness where they will be monitored using tracking collars.
