The 2019 live action The Lion King film is now available on Blu-ray, DVD and digital! To celebrate, we went on a tour at Central Florida Animal Reserve. This non-profit organization rescues and gives a forever home to big cats: lions, tigers, leopards and cougars. Many of the animals here were once at risk of being euthanized but now they’ll have “no worries for the rest of their days” at this sanctuary.
Central Florida Animal Reserve runs on donations and volunteers. Our guide himself was a volunteer and has been for around twenty years. He’s built relationships with the cats in various ways like administering physical therapy to a tiger with arthritis in his shoulder and helping to build enclosures for the animals. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and passionate about big cats. I learned so much about these beautiful creatures from him! Did you know female lions are more attracted to males with darker manes? In The Lion King Mufasa has a richer brown hair but realistically would have had hair like Scar’s if he was the leader of the pride. Our tour was about ninety minutes and we saw more than ten of the current twenty-ish animals that live there including Coty, pictured with me below, with a multicolor mane. I was impressed with how close we were able to get and how relaxed the animals were, even coming up to our guide and nuzzling him through the fence like a house cat. I also learned that when a cat blinks slowly around you it means it’s cool with you.
You can go on your own tour tailored to your interests surrounding these beauties. All funds go right to supporting them. Central Florida Animal Reserve is a great destination for animal lovers, homeschool students or groups, conservation enthusiasts or anyone interested in seeing lions, tigers, leopards and cougars up close. You can also donate or volunteer to help provide for these animals.
Visit cflar.org to learn more.
Read my article on Disney’s lion conservation efforts in the wild.
