3 lions find refuge from Ukraine war

This photograph taken on Jan. 26, 2024 shows Atlas the lion in an enclosure at the Auxois animal park in Arnay-sous-Vitteaux, central eastern France. Atlas the lion was found in a 12 square meter space inside a private home north of Kiev, Ukraine, where it had been living for several years. Atlas was rescued by the Wild Animal Rescue association from the conflict zone along with two other lionesses found in Donetsk (Queen and Luladja), and will soon be sharing a 5,000 square meter enclosure with Mirkoula, another 10-year-old lioness, already a park resident. (Photo by ARNAUD FINISTRE / Agence France-Presse)

ARNAY-SOUS-VITTEAUX, France — Three lions kept in captivity in Ukraine arrived at a wildlife park in France on Friday after their rescue from the war-ravaged country.

Atlas, a male, and lionesses Luladja and Queen — all three around 2 years old — arrived at the Auxois park in Burgundy, eastern France, after a journey of nearly 90 hours across Europe.

Their rescue is the latest effort by animal protection organizations to save big cats suffering from the upheaval of Russia’s war against Ukraine and from human exploitation.

Atlas was handed over by a woman near Kyiv who had had him since he was a cub, said Charlotte von Croy, in charge of emergency rescues at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), a US non-profit organization.

“He was becoming too aggressive, perhaps because of the bombings,” she told AFP.

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New home

The lion is overweight at 294 kilograms (648 pounds), compared with a normal weight of under 200 kilograms for his two-and-a-half years.

The two lionesses were found in eastern Ukraine where they had probably also been kept by private individuals who fled the fighting, Von Croy said.

The three were first picked up by a local NGO, Wild Animal Rescue, which then sought animal parks abroad willing to give them a new home.

“That’s always the difficult part,” said Von Croy.

Once the new homes were secured, the three cats were taken to France through Poland, a trip lasting 88 hours.

The Auxois park, which keeps around 500 animals, already has a lioness, said its director, Geoffrey Delahaye.

This photograph taken on Jan. 26, 2024, shows Luladja, the lion in an enclosure at the Auxois animal park in Arnay-sous-Vitteaux, central eastern France. Luladja the lioness was found in Donetsk, Ukraine. She escaped the war thanks to the Wild Animal Rescue Association. Luladja was rescued from the conflict zone by the Wild Animal Rescue association, along with two other lions (Queen and Atlas), and will soon be sharing a 5,000 square meter enclosure with Mirkoula, another 10-year-old lioness, already a resident of the park. (Photo by ARNAUD FINISTRE / Agence France-Presse)

At first, the new arrivals will be kept in large enclosures in the 40-hectare park area, he said, to give them the chance to discover their new environment gradually.

“We will give them time to find their bearings,” Delahaye said.

Caught up in conflict

IFAW has rescued 13 big cats from Ukraine so far, taking them to the United States, Poland, Belgium, Spain and France.

Von Croy said there were probably around 10 big cats remaining in Ukraine, where keeping felines in private homes remains legal.

Owners are supposed to keep them in large enclosures but that rule is ignored “in 99 percent of cases,” Von Croy said.

“These big cats are not only another victim of the Russian invasion but also suffered from human exploitation,” IFAW’s website quoted Natalia Popova of Wild Animal Rescue as saying after an earlier rescue.

“These are the unexpected victims of this war,” IFAW rescue officer Natalia Gozak said about exotic pets caught up in the conflict in Ukraine.

“Lions—that should be roaming the plains of Africa — have instead been found in backyard breeding facilities in my country.”

“As their owners were forced to flee, they were left to languish.”