Lion Called Christian by Anthony Bourke

Christian could die.
    We left England at 7:00 P.M. with Bill and the film crew, and with Christian somewhere underneath us. The only scheduled stop, before Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Kenya, was in Paris one hour later. We were allowed to climb into the hold, where to our great relief we found Christian sleepy and calm. We decided that it was unnecessary to give him more tranquilizers, so we just slipped pieces of meat through the bars to him and refilled his water bowl. But the most demanding and longest part of the flight still lay ahead.
    We landed in Nairobi at 7:00 A.M. Uninterrupted sunshine is assumed in Africa, as it is in Australia or Los Angeles, but it was overcast and cold. While we had checked that it was not the rainy season, we had overlooked that it would be winter. On the tarmac we anxiously waited for Christian's crate to be unloaded. He had survived! His ordeal was nearly over, but no longer tranquilized, he was very agitated. George Adamson was there to meet us, and he arranged for Christian to be wheeled off to an animal-holding compound, where he waited while we went through Immigration and Customs. Christian was relieved to be let out of his crate, and greeted us affectionately. George described him as "a handsome, friendly little fellow." Though he was uninjured and unmarked, Christian walked unsteadily and looked totally exhausted. His eyes were bleary, his coat had lost condition, and he seemed thinner. We could just not believe that after all the delays and frustrations Christian was safely in Kenya, and had escaped the fate of a life of captivity in the United Kingdom.
    At last we had met George Adamson, who had first rehabilitated Elsa and knew more about lions than anyone else in the world, and who was to introduce Christian into the wild. He was a surprisingly small and dapper figure wearing a stiffly laundered safari suit, and he had neatly trimmed gray hair and a pointed goatee beard. He was soft-spoken but had piercing blue eyes that seemed to examine us, and in his Foreword he says he immediately had confidence in Christian but was not so sure about us! Only after a few days did he relax in our company. He was intelligent and amusing and admitted to his excitement and enthusiasm for the challenge of rehabilitating Christian.
    The area allotted by the Kenyan government for this purpose was at Kora, near Garissa, two hundred and eighty miles northeast of Nairobi. To reach Kora, a final track of twenty miles had been cleared through the bush by George's brother, Terence Adamson, with an African labor force. Bill and George decided to make the journey in two stages in order to provide sufficient time for the camp to be prepared for our arrival. It would also be easier for Christian.
    Kora had been offered because no one else wanted it. George described it as a desolate, unattractive part of Kenya. Few Africans live there, there were disease-carrying tsetse flies, and in the wet season it could be inaccessible. The game, while not abundant, would be adequate for Christian and the other lions in the pride that George intended to form. For the exclusive use of this unwanted land the film company had to pay PS 750 a year.
    Christian remained in the holding compound at the airport for two days. We stayed in Nairobi, and several times each day drove out to see and feed him. He was apparently content to sleep if we were not there, but the flight seemed to have exhausted and disoriented him. Our visits attracted enormous crowds of Africans, and we realized that most of them had never seen a lion or many other indigenous animals. Until the early 1970s, only tourists could afford to visit the game parks. Each time Christian walked toward the gate of the compound, the crowd stepped back apprehensively. As we talked to various officials at the airport, it was apparent that they did not see the point of trying to rehabilitate a lion, let alone flying one from England at such expense.
    We visited Nairobi National