It with great sadness we announce that our dear Leo, lion father of the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary, has now passed away. Leo, who was over 21 years old, had become very fragile and appeared to be fading at the start of the month. But with palliative care an outpouring of love across the world, our warrior bounced back. He was back to his old self for three wonderful weeks, his appetite returned, he enjoyed the ADIWS staff constantly attending him, basked in the South African sunshine, and would walk deep into his habitat and to watch his daughters. A last hurrah in the land of his forefathers.

We all knew the end was coming, so he was kept under constant watch these past days he started to have difficulty walking and began leaving his food. Leo seemed to have decided it was time. Dr Caldwell came to the Sanctuary, we discussed how Leo’s health would deteriorate and decided it was time to let him go peacefully in the place where he had the happiest times of his life, with his beloved Muñeca and he leaves us with daughters Africa and Kiara and sons Rolex, Coco, and Chino.

Together with police and wildlife officials, we seized Leo and his sons from a circus in Peru in 2014 during our first raid of the Spirit of Freedom rescue – he was the first lion to step into an ADI ‘freedom cage’. 32 other lions would be saved. The circus got a lawyer to pause the rescue and they immediately raced to a remote region to hide. It took a while, but we caught up with them and took Muñeca, Africa and Kiara. We reunited Leo with Muñeca and they spent their golden years together at ADIWS before Muñeca passed away in late 2022. Now they are together again.

Leo has been taken to be cremated and his ashes placed in a small casket, same as Muñeca and all our departed residents. We plan a memorial garden for them all at the Sanctuary.

There will be a further tribute to this magnificent old warrior tomorrow.