Elias called Andi in the early morning of 11 December telling her that Savannah had given birth to 4 cubs during the night. Andi watched them through binoculars so as to be able to stay well away but also keep an eye on them. The camp Savannah was in had an interlinking gate to the camp next door which was open so that that pride had both camps available to them. Savannah had left the 4 cubs in a sheltered nook in some scrub next to a log under the gum trees in camp 9 but she was lying in camp 8. The cubs would squirm around and after some time began spreading out, leaving their secure spot. Their father, Clyde became interested in the little squirming creatures, he began tentatively swatting at one who had travelled a good 3m from the ‘nest’. Savannah came charging down towards Clyde warning him away with a growl, he ran at her and loudly chased her away. She retreated back into camp 8. Clyde lay and watched the cubs. Every time he made a move toward one of them Savannah would hiss and growl but not come closer. Andi asked Elias to go and get meat for Clyde so that they could lure him into the top end of camp 8 leaving an open path for Savannah to get to her cubs.

Before they could move him, Clyde jumped up and hit out at one of the cubs, he began swatting it around. They could see the cub had died as it became limp, Clyde lost interest after a while and began stalking and reaching out for another cub.

They shouted and waived to get him to back off. He did but only temporarily. He grabbed at something they had not as yet even realised was there, it was another dead cub. He threw it around for awhile and then lay watching the remaining three cubs who were wriggling away from their ‘nest’.

Elias had driven the bakkie with the meat alongside Camp 8 and managed to lure Clyde into camp 8 and all the way to the far corner. Clyde took the bait and went into the bushes to eat. They waited and waited for Savannah to come down to camp 9. She never did. She lay with her adult daughters, sleeping and licking one another, moving only around each other.

The cubs in the meantime had squirmed and crawled far away from one another out into the mid summer sunshine screaming while they did so. After some time, they each became still and quiet and just lay where they were.

After an hour or so, Clyde left his corner and headed directly towards camp 9 at a fast trot. He had finished his meat and savannah had not come to the cubs which meant the gate was still open. Elias closed the inter-leading gate to prevent Clyde from getting to the cubs again.

Pat, the owner of the farm and Elias then went in through the feeding sash gate and picked up the 3 live cubs and 2 bodies.

Pat gave Andi the cubs telling her she could have them if she would stay to take care of them and the rest of his farm. Andi later learnt that the parents, Clyde and Savannah, did not belong to the farm owner, however the true owner of the lions signed over ownership of all of his lions to Andi in 2015.

Andi's children named the cubs Aslan, Reign and Shannon.

Reign was the first of the siblings to achieve new things. She was the bravest and cleverest and the most demonstrative of the 3.

Sienna, Tindra, Aslan, Reign and Shannon were known as the STARS and they lived together with Fonda and Tamarind until the boys were old enough to mate with the girls at which time Andi separated Shannon and Aslan from the group.

Unhappily, Andi believes Reign might have had a litter of cubs during the period between Andi's leaving the former location and her managing to get a court order allowing them to be moved to the new sanctuary. Reign is now on contraception to avoid pregnancy as we do not allow breeding at LLA.

Reign was moved to the new location of Love Lions Alive Sanctuary on 10 March 2017, she is living with Shannon and Sienna. We were told that Tindra had died and the owners of that farm would not give Andi Aslan. So the STARS are now 3.

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