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  • 1 week ago
Kevin Richardson heads out on an African bush enrichment walk with lion pride members Vayetse and Ginny, and the outing quickly turns unpredictable when hunger kicks in. What begins as a gentle stroll turns into a tense, fascinating look at lion behavior, old-age mobility, and the instinctive drama of walking with big cats in the wild.

Kevin also shares an update on Vayetse’s health, explaining the earlier hind-limb paralysis, the likely spinal inflammation behind it, and the encouraging signs of improved strength and muscle mass. Along the way, the lions’ energy, patience, and sudden interest in prey keep the moment alive, especially when Ginny surprises everyone by catching a daker in the African bush. The episode also marks Vayetse’s 17th birthday, adding a reflective note to this wildlife encounter.

Created for viewers who enjoy wildlife documentaries, big cat behavior, lion sanctuary content, and first-person bush walks, this is a strong fit for nature lovers, animal rescue audiences, and anyone searching for Kevin Richardson, the Lion Whisperer, or African wildlife enrichment footage. It blends animal care, conservation storytelling, and close-up lion footage into one memorable safari-style experience.

Category

🐳
Animals
Transcript
00:01Don't be such a bully. What the hell are you doing? Cats are all going mad. Oh my
00:08gosh, what the hell? She caught something. Good morning everyone. Today we're going
00:17to be taking Bayezzi and Ginny out for an enrichment walk. Hello guys. Hello,
00:23hello, hello. Hello my big boy.
01:03I'm sorry.
01:05I'm sorry.
01:18I'm sorry.
01:28All right so there's certainly nothing wrong with Fayet's ability to run ahead today yeah they
01:37have shot off out the blocks with some you know massive energy today it's it's it's really good
01:47to see because last year and I'm not sure of the time frame but it seems like
01:53about a year ago I went on one of these walks very similar to this and as I opened
02:01the gate I noticed Fayet's was almost like paralyzed in his hind limbs which
02:08was very very weird and he stumbled out like he was on on drugs and I couldn't
02:15quite put my finger on it and we had to cut the the walk short and yeah I got Doc
02:24Caldwell out and we ran a whole bunch of tests just to see what was going down and
02:31yeah there was nothing really specific that we could pinpoint you know whether
02:38he had been maybe drugged or something to that effect to cause that kind of
02:43paralysis but yeah later on we kind of figured out what we thought to be the
02:53most likely reason for what had happened and I will fill you guys in on that in a
03:14second
03:16oh
03:17oh
03:25Let's go.
04:02In that way, he keeps on flopping.
04:19Come boy, let's not flop down again, come, let's go find her, come, come big boy, let's
04:29go, let's go. There we go. Bicep is burning. This rig that I'm using is not the
04:54lightest of rigs. Anyway, I'll quit my mining. I know many of you write in all
05:03the time saying you'd give anything to walk a mile in my shoes.
05:12Sometimes guys I'm not so sure. Hello my boy, you came looking for me, eh? What a nice
05:22boy is on a mission now. Oh. Smell something.
05:52Sometimes guys, and I should take my own advice on this one, I always say simpler
06:01is better. But then I want to always bring you guys the best footage possible. So I
06:14challenge myself with the stabilizer rigs and the bigger camera. But I'm not sure
06:26many of you notice. So sometimes I think just heading out into the bush with a
06:35GoPro is all that I should do. So do you notice guys, for those of you who tune in
06:45regularly, do you notice a substantial difference in video quality when I use
06:53the the big rig versus when I just shoot with a GoPro? And honestly guys, tell me, do
07:03you really care? Because I think a lot of you tune in just to see the animals and
07:11you know hear the latest and catch up on them or catch up with them. I'm not sure
07:17you really are tuning in to care about the fancy camera moves. If you are please do
07:24let me know because I'm very curious because this thing weighs a ton. You can
07:29hear I'm out of breath. It's not because I'm not fit guys. Trust me. I'm probably the
07:35fittest I've been in in many many years. But yeah it's it's hard graft. Alright so
07:42while we're just taking a gentle stroll here up the up the drag. Although now he's
07:51decided there's something worthwhile to roll around in. Maybe it's a good
07:56opportunity to discuss what was going on with Vajetzi's hindquarters. You can see
08:05guys there's still a little bit of muscle atrophy on the hindquarters. He did lose a
08:14lot of muscle mass so we can assume that there was a decreased neurological input
08:21put there and yeah let me explain that quickly. So what we think happened is we
08:32know lines of Vajetzi's age 17 years old we know that spondylitis which is
08:43basically the arthritis of the spine of the vertebra and arthritis in the hip area. We
08:54know that that is par for the course with Vajetzi and a lot of the older cats and so we
09:07think that there was quite a bit of inflammation at the time and potentially
09:16there was the constriction of the nerves in the lower spine feeding the hind limbs
09:24and obviously that decreased signal to the muscles caused that paralysis so it was
09:32the brain a case of the brain saying move but you know the the input not giving the
09:39signal and therefore the limb saying no I can't and and that was what we think
09:47happened there and so we we had him on a course of anti-inflammatories we don't
09:54think it was painful it didn't seem to be painful because he could walk he wanted to
09:58he would get up and try his best to walk a distance but he would just be flopping
10:04around it's almost as though the back side or the hind limb was overtaking the
10:12front side so yeah you could see he he was getting very frustrated because he
10:17didn't actually know what was going on and another telltale sign pardon the pun was
10:26the fact that his tail wasn't actually moving his tail was actually quite limp you
10:32know we were really really glad to see improvements in Vajetzi and actually he
10:41started to gain muscle mass on the hindquarters so that was really really
10:46good news and him a boy it was really really good news if you look at nature male
10:53lions aren't designed to live to 220 in the wild you know good innings 12 years of
10:59age and yeah it's a good innings for a for a lion a male lion so you know whereas a
11:06lioness look how agile she is you would never say she's that age she's she's always on
11:15the go she's looking smelling exploring just really a joy to be around her because I
11:24actually do forget her age it's it's it's quite it's quite sad guys to see the
11:31male lions get to a state oh my gosh what the hell she caught something she caught a
11:41dacre that's where she's been oh is it a dacre where'd you catch there my girl
12:00holy holy crap guys this old granny has just caught a dacre
12:10I don't know what to say I can tell you this much that if big boy finds it that's going
12:18to be the end of the dacre so I'm going to try and distract him leave her there there
12:24she is as proud as punch oh here he comes let's just hope he doesn't let's hope he doesn't
12:35realize that there's something there I think we need to keep quiet okay it's not a very
12:41big dacre which is good but nonetheless if this guy gets it then that's it he's gonna
12:49have to finish it before we can take him home hello my boy yes my boy oh yes it's just
12:57relax
12:58relax all right I'm going to quickly call George but just before I do I'm sure you've noticed my
13:10gorgeous Vietzi top if you want to get yourself a Vietzi top do go and check out the merch there's
13:21a
13:21shameless plug for my tea mill merch really proud of it good quality sustainably made and yeah this
13:30one is actually quite a good seller so yeah go and check it out we'll leave the link below
13:37if you are wanting some Lion Whisperer merch and that's the Vietzi portrait tea in blue I really like
13:47the blue that's that boy over there hello how's it Georgie good and you good thank you yeah so
13:57um wait wait wait wait boy uh Vietzi caught uh not Vietzi Ginny caught a yeah yeah wait wait wait
14:06wait
14:06wait boy hey flopping down on me uh yeah wait wait wait to go there yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
14:15sorry George
14:17we just buy if you come in from the Amy's camp the walking camp entrance the the hotel gates go
14:22left
14:23down the fence we're just down the road yeah okay okay no problem cheers bye
14:33come bye let's go
14:34what the hell are you doing cats are all going mad yeah
14:52okay okay okay okay so that's one of the uh
14:59that's one of the telltale tests to see
15:02how good his hand quarter strength is hello George how are you good let's go back up the road because
15:12we
15:12need to fetch her she hasn't really tucked into it yet but i think she's going to start in a
15:19second so
15:20all right so
15:24okay so i was just saying i mean
15:26that is just bears testimony to
15:29the increase in strength he has in his hindquarters the fact that he can
15:33jump into the vehicle means he's doing remarkably well and that the inflammation is down
15:41okay now the trick is going to be getting
15:45Ginny into the car let's see if i can
15:49trade her some
15:51zebra for for some daycare
15:55yeah
15:59okay yeah
16:05Ginny
16:06yeah
16:11yeah yeah yeah
16:26oh yeah
16:30Ginny
16:39crazy things we do all right now I'm gonna let Vajetzi out and then I can get her in
16:54Vajetzi
17:10wow guys never a dull moment and yeah full of surprises and that just goes to show you know
17:20what I was talking about earlier about the females just being so much more agile and wearing a lot
17:29better in their old age there's no ways Vajetzi would be able to chase down a dacre and and you
17:36know successfully kill it like that no ways all right guys so we've hatched a plan George thinks
17:42it's unfair that I don't give Vajetzi any I think it's totally fair he didn't work for it he shouldn't
17:49get any but George is kind of the judge and the jury here at the sanctuary so what he says
17:56goes
17:56you know so I have to listen to him he's always playing fair but yeah I don't think it is
18:04fair
18:05write your comments let us know if you think it's fair I know I know what you guys are going
18:10to say
18:10you're going to go oh shame poor Vajetzi but yeah he did nothing what what I will say though and
18:15I'm
18:15very impressed about is Vajetzi didn't barge in there and take it for himself and I was worried
18:22about that because that's what Vajetzi normally does but actually he was pretty polite and patient
18:28and for that reason I will agree with George and say that we can give half half what is really
18:36nice
18:36about giving a full carcass like us is that they're going to it's fresh a so they can eat all
18:43the innards
18:44and that is where the nutrition is so the liver you know the heart the lungs the the esophagus even
18:52the the the intestines they they really like to eat that and it's full of nutrients so we will make
19:02sure that each of them gets exactly half of the carcass and I'm sure we're going to have two very
19:08very happy lines don't be such a bully such a bully yeah
19:39you
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