As traditional African legend has it, the white lion is a child of the sun god, sent to earth in a star to protect all of humankind. So the question is, if these lion were sent to protect humans, why are humans killing them? Donna Verrydt travelled to Legend’s Wildlife Centre in the Waterberg to meet the wonderful people who are protecting the white lions.

I gasped! I hadn’t expected to see the lion right there, but as we came around the corner I was confronted by her giant face, as white as dirty snow and with the most piercing blue eyes I’d ever seen. Her name was Jessie. She is one of the white lions of Legend’s Wildlife Centre – and this is her island. The “islands” at the Legend’s Wildlife Centre are an innovative concept in captivity. They consist of a very large piece of land, around which deep moats have been dug. On the boarder of these moats are specially designed electric fences. This is a wonderful way to keep animals in the area without there being a feeling of captivity.

As we got off the safari vehicle, Jessie spotted my four-year-old daughter, Olivia. Immediately, she crouched in stalk mode and, erm… leopard crawled behind a bush for camouflage. But she stood out a mile.

“We can still see you, Jessie – you’re white!” laughed Yolande, one of the rangers at the centre and our guide for the day.

It’s thought that perhaps the white lions have difficulty surviving in the wild because of their lack of camouflage, but Yolande says that she sometimes has difficulty spotting the lions on the island. And so do the unsuspecting guinea fowl that are stalked and chased on a daily basis.

“Even though these lion have been hand-reared, the hunting instinct is still there,” says Yolande. “The trouble is that they don’t understand hunting strategy, which is why they won’t do well if we release them into the wild”

The white lion are being bred at the centre with the long-term goal of releasing them into neighbouring Entabeni and then into the wild. The tawny male lion – Mapimpan, who was left for dead at four days old after a violent attack by a wild male lion – will be mated with the female white lion, and hopefully a white pride will continue to grow.

I was surprised to find out that prior to 1975, the legend of these blond, blue-eyed beauties was just that – a legend. Nobody had actually ever seen a white lion in the wild. In the 60s, Credo Mutwa, a famous spiritualist or medium of Zulu heritage, not only predicated that the mythical white lion would one day be found, but he was also able to predict the co-ordinates of where.

Then in 1975, a game ranger at Timbavati came across a lioness and three white cubs in the wild, fewer than 47 metres off the co-ordinates that Credo had predicted. And even more significant was the fact that they were found at Timbavati, which in Shangaan stands for “place where star-lions arrived on earth”. No lies!

Perhaps they truly are sacred, but one thing is for sure, they’re extremely rare, so rare, in fact, that a male white lion can fetch more than R500 000 in hunting circles. In recent years the white lion was even severely in-bred for the canned-lion hunting trade, a despicable practice of human cruelty.

We ventured over to the cub enclosure. There are currently three three-year-old tawny cubs, all carrying the recessive white gene and two pure white four-year-old cubs. All these cubs are currently being weaned off human contact, as the hope is that they’ll be the first generation to be released into the wild.

“We’re passionate about these lions, and we only have their best interests at heart,” explains Yolande. She doesn’t need to tell me that. Her passion, and that of centre manager Arrie van Deventer is clear. Because of people like them, the “children of the sun god” may actually have a shot in the wild – and that’s something that inspires me and the whole Gtribe team, to do our bit to help. They could use your help too!


Visit Legend Wildlife Centre
Legend Wildlife Centre is a spin-off of the nearby Legend Golf and Safari Resort and the Entabeni Big Five Game Reserve. Visitors to the centre will be able to see animals involved in projects or rehabilitation, including white lion, king cheetah, wild cat, buffalo, many antelope and soon even the king cobra. Visitors can also visit the Eugene Marais Museum and the tea garden on site. Support is sorely needed, so please visit.

Poaching a plant
The Eugene Marais Cycad, also known as the Waterberg Cycad, is found in the mountains of the Waterberg and was discovered by the writer and naturalist Eugene Marais. Due to a high demand for cycads for private residences, cycad syndicates have poached this cycad from the wild and sell them for up to R10 000 per plant. Because of this there are fewer than 100 of these cycads left in the wild. Two other cycad species actually became extinct between 2003 and 2010 for the same reason. The Legend’s Wildlife Centre is striving to also protect these cycads from poachers.

White lion facts
- White lion are not albinos but a genetic rarity unique to the Timbavati region.
- The infamous Las Vegas magicians Siegfried and Roy once owned 21 white lion.
- There’s talk of a Hollywood movie in the making about Linda Tucker, a white lion conservationist, who experienced something magical while visiting the Kruger National Park a few years back. During a night-time safari, the group’s safari vehicle became surrounded by a pride of angry lion. The group members were sure they would all be killed. Suddenly an old woman carrying a baby on her back walked out of the bush and climbed onto the vehicle. Her presence calmed the lions. Tucker discovered that the woman was Maria Khosa, a renowned “medicine woman” considered a protector of the lion – a lion shaman.