South Africa's Lion Whisperer

May 29, 2017 10:23 PM

Lion Whisperer Kevin Richardson hopes his hands-on stunts with lions will highlight the plight of the African predator, whose numbers have dwindled. The number of lions in the wild in Africa has dropped by more than 40 percent to about 20,000 in the past two decades, according to some estimates. Made for viral viewing on social media, the spectacle of Richardson lounging and cavorting with lions as though they were house pets might resemble a circus act in the African bush. But he uses the attention to condemn the South African industry in which customers kill captive-bred lions in relatively confined areas.
posted by grobertson (1 comment total)

It feels like there is a direct contradiction in goals between this

Made for viral viewing on social media, the spectacle of Richardson lounging and cavorting with lions as though they were house pets might resemble a circus act in the African bush. But he uses the attention to condemn the South African industry in which customers kill captive-bred lions in relatively confined areas.

and this:

"Today's lion cub becomes tomorrow's trophy and the unsuspecting tourists have blood on their hands," said Richardson, who once worked at a tourist park that offered lion cub-petting. The tourists, he said, "have been hoodwinked into believing that their contribution of funds is going into lion conservation."

One of the issues with conservation of any animal that is remotely cute is the human desire to be friends with and cuddle with and make them into pets. That is exactly the drive that makes anyone want to go and pet a lion cub. I'm complaining about this drive, and right now I'd really like to pet a lion cub, it's pretty much inbuilt. You can't make a video about how you can cuddle and play and be 'one of the pride' without creating an image of lions as a creature that can and should be played with without reinforcing one of the exact causes of their suffering.

The other issue is trying to do this virally. I've seen tons of his videos passed around on FB and elsewhere, and I don't think I've ever, ever seen a video that included any messaging about the plight of lions beyond a vague mention that they are endangered and that they need our help, and while he may go into great depth in his own videos, the thing about a viral video is that it can get chopped up into smaller and smaller bits to maximally appeal to short attention spans for that media, so the actually successful versions I'm aware of are him playing with lions set to cute music, zero conservation content, maximum cute in minimum time.

I'm sure the dude's motives are pure, but I knew about him before, and couldn't have told you anymore about what he's interested in beyond 'helping lions', and that's the exact same sort of messaging he's decrying later. He might not be a scammer, but he's driving interest in that industry. Maybe he does good work elsewhere that I don't see, but from what I can tell his best efforts are instantly corrupted by the medium. I think the vast majority of people who see one of his videos walk away with nothing more than a deep desire to pet a lion.
posted by neonrev at 11:36 PM on May 29, 2017 [1 favorite]