Ile Maurice - Tig-Lio

We went for a walk with a young lioness and a young Bengal tiger today. It was a superb experience to be able to walk with them and to touch them (under close supervision of course). The Bengal tiger was particularly frisky and repeatedly set about goading the lioness into playing and chasing. I've got literally dozens of photos of the walk - Mrs S and daughter also had cameras so will have a lot of sifting of extemely close range photos of the lioness and tiger when we get back home.

It is hard to describe just how much fun we had - and the animals seemed to have had - during the hour long walk. The tiger was so impish and the lionesss so patient. We were then allowed into the Cheetah enclosure to get up close to these magnificent animals - got a quite a few photos of that too.

They are all rescue animals of course and I understand they are re-instated into the wild at a suitable age.

It was such a memorable trip that unfortunately only one blip photo does not really justice to the experience. Will post more on Flickr or on website when I get home next week.

BTW, the lioness was not hurt in the more than boisterous charges made by the tiger. The lioness was more than capable of looking after herself.

PS - during some of the walk when the lioness and tiger split up to go in different directions I was reminded of the Billy Connolly sketch about Agnes and Betty - lionesses stalking an unsuspecting wilderbeest. More than once we found ourselves looking over our shoulders when we realised we'd focussed on the lioness ahead only to see the tiger watching from the undergrowth nearby.