Be a Lion’s heart; live long, love strong and respect our planet. There is nothing cooler than that. Today we celebrate the animal kingdom's most fearsome, beautiful and almighty creatures for World Lion Day. 'This is 'Alex'. He's like the lion in the film 'Madagascar’. 'A' for Alex and he's the King of the Jungle,' my daughter announces. 'The baby lion cub is called 'Freddie' and he's playing with my heart shaped balloon. I've told him not to let it go. I've done that before and it made me cry.' 'Hmm,' I reply. 'It's a bit like if we stopped looking after lions, they would be lost too and wouldn't be able to see them anymore.'
My daughter and I love lions and we've discussed conservation issues around them before so she's aware of why they're endangered. 'We need to look after their homes because they're being taking away,' my best girl pipes up - she's referring to habitat destruction, of course, because human populations are encroaching and building on grasslands and forest areas in Africa and India where lion species live. 'Hunting is not nice either is it Mummy.' I whole heartedly agree.
I drew this and my daughter coloured in Alex, Freddie and the heart shaped balloon with coloured pencils in her very own way. I added oil pastels.
Jane Goodall and the Jane Goodall Institute UK are working to end wildlife trafficking. If interested in finding out more, you might like visit http://www.janegoodall.org.uk
