Lion king at home with his cats

By CLAIRE TREVETT

America had the horse whisperer, Australia is famous for its crocodile hunter. Now New Zealand has its own Lion Man.

Just over a year ago, Craig Busch opened Zion Wildlife Gardens at Whangarei.

Three Mile Bush Rd, amid green fields dotted with cows, is the last place you would expect to find lions and tigers. But there they are - 12 Barbary lions, four rare white and one orange Bengal tigers, some Serval cats and an ex-circus baboon.

Ten of the lions are the offspring of a pair Mr Busch obtained from another New Zealand wildlife reserve. But most of the cubs were bred using semen from other lions to widen the genetic stock.

Walking round, scratching them under the chin, is Craig Busch.

The story of Whangarei's lion man and his wildlife park, which is still being developed but open to tours by appointment, will feature in a new eight-week TV2 series on Sundays at 7pm, starting tomorrow.

Yesterday, a miserable day, Zion the lion was none too happy about being dragged from his den. He emerges looking like a truculent teenager, bleary-eyed with pieces of hay stuck in his mane.

Then 250kg of big cat eyes up 80kg Craig Busch, who clucks over him, plucking out the bits of hay.

Busch urges him up on to a rock, and says "swipe".

Zion lets out a roar and swings a paw, thwacking Busch. A few more swipes and roars for the camera and Busch changes his tone. Seconds later the lion is licking at his arm, lifting his head to have a chin scratch and finally sticking his nose out for a kiss.

Busch has had Zion since he was born nearly five years ago and knows him well. When Busch is overseas, whoever answers the phone when he calls home has to take it out to a pining Zion. Busch assures me that when he talks on the phone, Zion answers.

There are no polytech courses on lion taming, so Busch taught himself, using common sense, gut instinct and a natural affinity for the cats.

"You have to judge a situation right. If you judge it wrong, you're going to get a facelift."

The first time he touched a big cat was in America, when he struck up a rapport with a wild cougar.

Now he does it every day.

He spent years finding his cats to breed.

"I wanted the best bloodlines, and unrelated tigers. You look at their parents to see what you are going to get, which can help. It's like when you go to pick up a girlfriend, you look at her parents."

There are no Barbary lions or white Bengal tigers left in the wild, and only about 90 of the tigers remain in captivity.

The Barbary lions were wiped out in the 1920s and the white Bengals in 1958.

Busch's dream is to set up a haven to breed his big cats in Whangarei. His most urgent priority is a huge tree-clad enclosure for the tigers, which need space to run.

"It's a dream but it comes at a high cost, which is very hard."