From Cramped Cells to the African Sun: Rescued Leopards’ Fresh Start

“To know that this beautiful mother and daughter are, at this moment, experiencing the sights, sounds, and smells of their ancestral homeland for the first time is enough to make the heart sing. No animal, certainly not the majestic leopard, is on this earth to be abused and exploited for human gain. Born Free won’t stop fighting to end the cruel and unnecessary illegal wildlife trade which could, so easily, have been the fate for these incredible animals.”

Dame Virginia McKenna

• Mother and daughter leopards, Alda and Ginny, were confiscated from an illegal breeding facility in Poland, in 2017. 
• The leopards faced a life of trafficking, exploitation, abuse, and possible death, as victims of the illegal wildlife trade.
• Complex rescue and re-homing mission across many years and thousands of miles.

Today, 3rd May 2024: On this, International Leopard Day, Born Free is proud to announce the successful translocation of two beautiful leopards to its Big Cat Sanctuary, at Shamwari Private Game Reserve, South Africa. After years of addressing legal issues and complex paperwork, an incredible journey of more than eight thousand miles, and the dedication of organizations across the globe, the mother and daughter are now finally experiencing the space, safety, and natural habitat of their forever home.

However, Alda and Ginny’s lives could have been very different. The mother and daughter believed to be around fourteen and eight years respectively, faced a deeply uncertain future as victims of the illegal trade in and trafficking of wild animals. Until 2017, they were being kept, along with many other animals, in terrible conditions at an unlawful breeding facility in Śrem near Poznań, Poland. When police and authorities raided the private farm that year, they found creatures crammed in dirty, inadequate conditions, some living in their own excrement and others without access to the outdoors. 

Alda and Ginny were confined to a tiny, dark, barren cell with very little outside space. Whilst the pair’s potential fate will never be fully known, it’s possible they could have been sold into a life of exploitation in a circus, into captivity in an unaccredited zoo, or even as body ‘parts’, fuelling the vile international trade in big-cat skins and bones, used by some for ‘traditional medicine’. All distressing outcomes for wild animals are subject to the unnecessary cruelty of the illegal wildlife trade. 

The facility in Śrem was subsequently shut down by the Polish authorities and the leopards, along with other animals, were confiscated.

A team of experts from the Belgian Wildlife Rescue Center, Natuurhulpcentrum (NHC), traveled to collect Alda and Ginny and found them with filthy coats and showing signs of malnourishment. Since 2017, the dedicated staff at NHC have cared for the mother and daughter, giving them the specialist care they needed to begin recovering from their ordeal. 

NHC was only ever meant to be a temporary home for the pair. At the time of confiscation, the Polish authorities gave permission for the leopards to be taken to Belgium, but it has taken a number of years, and many hundreds of hours of hard work, to secure all the correct documentation and certificates so that plans could finally be put in place for a permanent home for the leopards.

Born Free has been able to offer that permanent home and has been working alongside NHC ever since to meticulously plan their re-homing in South Africa.

That re-homing became a reality this week, when Alda and Ginny traveled more than eight thousand miles by road and air on international and domestic flights, to reach their destination, Born Free’s Big Cat Sanctuary at Shamwari on South Africa’s Eastern Cape. 

After their epic journey, the leopards were released on Wednesday into a still, bright morning surrounded by sunshine and birdsong. Initially, both Alda and Ginny took tentative steps out of their crates, sniffing the South African soil beneath their paws and carefully examining their new surroundings. The animal care team at Shamwari was thrilled to see both leopards looking relaxed and very quickly starting to explore the natural bush of their 2.5-acre enclosure, taking in the sights sounds, and smells of their ‘forever’ home.

Within half an hour the mother and daughter had found each other and were reunited, both looking well and enjoying the privacy of the thickets and dense bush. The Born Free team will now be monitoring the leopards closely giving them the dedicated, expert care they deserve, for the rest of their lives.

Born Free has four decades of experience rehoming big cats, but the task of relocating two grown leopards is complex and time-consuming. Many hundreds of hours of planning, evaluation, and care have been undertaken by Born Free’s experts and specialists, together with our valued supporters and partners, Natuurhulpcentrum, Shamwari Private Game Reserve, Olsen Animal Trust, Cargolux and BidAir Cargo, to ensure the safety, comfort and security of Alda and Ginny throughout their journey, and beyond. 

Born Free is profoundly grateful to all parties that have contributed to the success of this relocation. In particular, the Olsen Animal Trust which has generously donated funds to cover Alda and Ginny’s lifetime care. Also, our trusted air transport partners, Cargolux, for their expert services and for transporting the leopards free of charge from Luxembourg to Johannesburg, and BidAir Cargo for their specialist assistance and pro bono flight from Johannesburg to Port Elizabeth. This truly team effort means these beautiful leopards now have a new life in their natural, wild bush enclosure under the South African sun.

Alda and Ginny’s rehoming is especially poignant as this year marks Born Free’s 40th anniversary. Throughout those four decades, Born Free has worked tirelessly to rescue individual wild animals like Alda and Ginny from abusive captivity, to prevent countless more from being exploited by the wildlife trade, and to reduce the negative impact this trade has on biodiversity. Born Free’s fight against the global scourge of wildlife trafficking will continue until the brutal practice, netting millions of pounds for criminal gangs, is brought to an end.

Find out more about Born Free’s work to end the illegal wildlife trade, and how to help wild animals by donating to support this work, here: bornfree.org.uk/wildlife-trade

Dr Mark Jones, Born Free’s Head of Policy, said, “While the purpose for which these poor leopards and so many other wild animals were illegally bred and kept in the Polish facility isn’t entirely clear, it’s highly likely that, if they hadn’t been rescued, their future would have been very bleak indeed. The trade in wild animals, both legal and illegal, is a major cause of biodiversity loss, and one of the principal risk factors for the emergence of future pandemics, as well as being devastating for the individual welfare of countless wild animals. Born Free works tirelessly to end the illegal trade in wildlife, and to ensure any legal trade is robustly regulated to protect the welfare of affected animals and eliminate any associated risks to wildlife conservation and animal or human health. We were instrumental in the development and recent revision of the European Commission’s Action Plan Against Wildlife Trafficking and are promoting the need for an international agreement to combat the illicit trade in wildlife, always with the aim of keeping wildlife in the wild, where it belongs.”

Sil Janssen, Founder, Natuurhulpcentrum added, “We rescued the leopards, a mother and her daughter from an illegal breeding center seven years ago. The animals were confiscated because they were poorly cared for and kept in appalling conditions. The animals were kept in concrete cages that were far too small, without any distractions. We are very happy that we can work with Born Free again to give these animals a very good permanent home. We are sure that our leopards will do very well now in the care of Born Free at Shamwari.”

Maggie Balaskas, Born Free’s Head of Rescue and Care said, “Knowing the dire conditions Alda and Ginny were confiscated from, these two victims of the illegal wildlife trade truly deserve a tranquil, enriched life at Born Free’s Big Cat Sanctuary at Shamwari. Having waited so long to be legally allowed to leave Belgium, and what was only ever intended to be the temporary care of the wonderful Natuurhulpcentrum team, we are all overjoyed to see them finally being able to explore the new environment of their lifetime home in South Africa. Born Free has spent four decades tirelessly working to improve the lives of individual animals – Alda and Ginny are now part of that proud heritage. Two more lives transformed!”

Catherine Gillson, Born Free Manager, Shamwari Private Game Reserve added, “The dramatic change that Ginny and Alda are about to experience in their lives is going to be a privilege to see. The horrendous conditions that they experienced whilst living in their birthplace of Poland in an illegal breeding center is going to be a stark contrast to the thick natural vegetation in their enclosures surrounded by their indigenous ancestors on Shamwari Private Game Reserve. While sadly they can never fully be released to the wild, we hope they will quickly adapt to a new environment where they will have natural enrichment, be fed the correct diet, and live out their lives in the respectful care of our dedicated Born Free Animal Care Team.”

ENDS

FREE TO USE, BROADCAST QUALITY FOOTAGE/STILLS, INCLUDING CONTENT OF THE TERRIBLE CONDITIONS THE LEOPARDS WERE RESCUED FROM AND THEIR RELEASE, AVAILABLE HERE: https://tinyurl.com/yjw54ua2