New Baby Lion Cubs!

We retrieved the new baby lion cubs from their enclosures today. The rangers had moved their Moms to another area before we got down there. Upon their return, they may only look around for a few moments, then go on about their business as usual. This is what would happen in nature as well.
When we returned to the lodge with the cubs, we weighed them, bathed them, held them some more and named them. I wanted to name one after Richard, but with all the controversy between the volunteers, it got voted out. Still not positive what the final outcome of names were except 1, Michelle. She was the only white one and a female who was named after one of the volunteers that was here for several months and had left this afternoon.
There was 1 other female and 3 males. There had been one more, but earlier in the week there had been a disturbance between the lions and the cub had been killed in the middle of it all.
It was absolutely incredible to see them, hold them and photograph them especially at such a young age. (Less than 2 weeks old!) Although this was unusual to take them as soon as we did, this is usually done at 3 weeks old.

Lion cubs growing up...

I was on cub team today. The cubs are now too big to feed with a bottle anymore. Today will have to be the last day. They are too aggressive while feeding them and scratch and bite us. For now on they will be having only meat. In the morning we will be taking the new cubs away from their Mothers and putting them in with the other cubs. These are the cubs that were born when we arrived. It'll take them 2-3 days before they begin to suck on the bottle. It should be interesting to watch from the very beginning!
We had lots of guests today including a school from Brits. I really enjoyed working with them and Vince, the lion I had was extremely good!
We leave on Monday and it's so hard to believe it's been almost 2 weeks. I will miss this place a lot. It has been quite an education and the interaction with the lions has been amazing! Gill and Willie keep this place in such incredible shape, not an easy task, but they work very hard at it and it shows. The whole family works at it together. It'S a beautiful thing to watch. It's a wonderful experience for anyone who comes here.