On this day eleven years ago white lioness Lei-ah was born at a South African lion breeder. We hope that she is having a wonderful birthday roaming her habitat at the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary

White lions and tigers are not albinos but get their unusual colouring from a rare genetic condition called leucism caused by both parents carrying a recessive gene. Animals are relentlessly in-bred to create more white lions or tigers as novelties – mating related animals, fathers with daughters or brothers with sisters, again and again to guarantee the recessive white gene gets passed down. This causes multiple health problems and Lei-ah and sister (from another litter) Elsa have partial sight.

Luckily, Lei-ah and Elsa escaped this ruthless cycle of in-breeding and were taken to Panthera Africa Big Cat Sanctuary in the Western Cape. But in January, tragedy struck and the sanctuary was devastated by a wildfire.  A team from the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary headed to help, evacuated the lionesses and they have remained our VIP guests since then.  They are very friendly and seem to be enjoying themselves.

ADI has covered all the food, care costs, and modifications to the habitat for Lei-ah and Elsa and we have committed to doing so for the foreseeable future. Given their circumstances, we would not ask for support from Panthera Africa, so we are grateful to the ADI supporters who contributed to our initial appeal and hope that you will consider helping again with the ongoing care of Lei-ah and Elsa at ADIWS.

We love having our special guests, and our team will be very sad when they do leave, but like any other rescue there are hungry mouths to feed.  So, if you fancy a birthday contribution towards Lei-ah’s home from home, please give what you can today.