Video clip shows the reunion of two men with Christian, a lion they had raised as a cub.
In 1969, Australian John Rendall and his friend Ace Bourke (whose surname is often rendered as 'Berg'), both of whom were then living in London, bought a lion cub named Christian from Harrods department store, as the former recounted for the Daily Mail in 2007:'A friend had been to the 'exotic animals' department at Harrods and announced, rather grandly, that she wanted a camel,' says Rendall. 'To which the manager very coolly replied: 'One hump or two, madam?' 'Ace and I thought this was the most sophisticated repartee we'd ever heard, so we went along to check it out - and there, in a small cage, was a gorgeous little lion cub. We were shocked. We looked at each other and said something's got to be done about that.' Harrods, it turned out, was also quite keen to be rid of Christian, who had escaped one night, sneaked into the neighbouring carpet department - then in the throes of a sale of goatskin rugs - and wreaked havoc. The store, which had acquired the cub from Ilfracombe zoo, happily agreed to part with him for 250 guineas. So began Christian's year as an urban lion.For the next year the two men (along with Rendall's girl friend and an actress) raised the cub in the Sophistocat furniture shop, where Christian had living quarters in the basement, and the lion became a popular local figure. However, when Christian grew from his initial 35 lb. to 185 lb. within ayear, his keepers realized their lion would need to be relocated to a more suitable environment.By chance, one day Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna - the stars of the 1966 film Born Free - wandered into Sophistocat looking for a desk. The actors suggested that conservationist George Adamson (whose wife, Joy, wrote the book Born Free about their real-life experiences in raising a lion cub and rehabilitating it into the wild) might be able to help find an appropriate home for Christian.Rendall and Berg flew with Christian to Nairobi, Kenya, where they met up with George Adamson, who helped the lion settle into living an independent life (and integrating into a pride with other lions) in Kenya's Kora Reserve. The video clip linked above shows scenes from the two men's reunion with Christian in 1971.
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