The lion that guards my family
Social media has gone wild over the family who’ve deployed a lion to watch over their farmhouse at night
AMIGHTY roar reverberates across the Free State plains. Songbirds are momentar i ly shocked into silence as a lion strolls across the farmhouse’s manicured lawns, lazily rubbing himself against his owner’s bakkie parked near the front door. The magnificent animal is clearly king of all he surveys here on Tobie Bird’s farm near Hoopstad.
Tobie (46) became a social media sensation recently when a video was posted showing him playing with his three-year lion, Lobengula, through the bars of a security gate. Yet what really set tongues wagging was the revelation that for the past month the lion has assumed the role of watchdog for Tobie and his family, keeping them safe from farm attacks.
But don’t be fooled – although the lion is deeply protective of the Birds, he’s no cuddly pussycat.
“There’s no such thing as a tame lion,” says Tobie, a lion farmer.
The only difference between Lobengula and most other lions is that he’s lost his fear of humans, he points out.
“Which means you should be even more careful around him,” Tobie cautions.
As the sun starts to rise the Birds’ home becomes a hive of activity. School lunches for GC (9) and Mar-Lienke (8) need to be packed and mom Christolien (31) has to see to one-year-old Chloé before the older kids are taken to the school bus stop at 7.10 am.
But before anyone can leave the house Christolien has another job to do: she needs to lure Lobengula, who’s been on guard duty all night around the house, to the back door so Tobie and the kids can slip through the front door and into the bakkie.
“The kids know the lion’s not their playmate. Even though they love him very much, they respect him and keep their distance,” Tobie says.
Once back from dropping off the kids, he ties a tyre to his bakkie and starts driving. Lobengula runs along, swiping at the tyre like a housecat would a toy mouse – until he reaches his three-hectare enclosure.
When Lobengula is safely inside Tobie locks the gate and the farm workers can start their workday as the lion dozes in the shade of a camel thorn tree, resting up for another night of work.
ACLOSE bond developed between Tobie and his lion when the farmer brought Lobengula back from death’s door shortly after his arrival on the farm in 2015. His other lions hadn’t taken kindly to having to share their enclosure with the newcomer and viciously tore into him, nearly killing him.
“They just about ripped out his throat,” Tobie recalls.
A vet advised him to put the lion down but he refused, nursing Lobengula for weeks in his garage.
“He was very weak and could hardly eat anything. I hand-fed him little bits of meat.”
Once Lobengula had recovered he steadily grew into a healthy 300 kg adult lion – which was when Tobie put him in his own enclosure to keep him away from the other big cats.
But in May after Tobie received information from the local security group that an attack on his farm was being planned, he decided to enlist the help of his loyal lion to keep his family safe.
Ever since then Lobengula has spent most nights outside the Birds’ front door. “He always wants to be near us. I see his paw prints outside our bedroom window in the mornings.”
But Tobie is the first to point out that lions aren’t the solution to farm attacks. He regards Lobengula as more of a “precaution” than a security measure and he isn’t suggesting everyone in his neighbourhood gets a lion. “They’re still killing machines,” he says. Tobie has to be extra vigilant, monitoring Lobengula’s moods carefully.
“If he looks irritated and he’s ignoring me, I won’t let him out.”
He and his wife are both mad about lions and Tobie even proposed to Christolien, his second wife, with a ring entwined with strands of Lobengula’s mane. Tobie then had a lion paw print tattooed onto his ring finger instead of wearing a wedding band.
“We wanted to do something unique that shows our love for lions,” he explains.
And his pet lion is showing his love for his owner by offering him protection.
“Farmers need to realise they’re responsible for the safety of their own farms.
“You can’t expect the police to protect all the farms – it’s your responsibility.”
Lobengula is far more to Tobie than a vigilant security guard. He dotes on the animal.
“Someday I want my wife buried next to me and him on top of me. This lion will never be sold to be hunted.”
Tobie breeds lions “specifically to achieve perfect genetics among our lions – I don’t sell my animals to be hunted at all. To me the deadliest sin is hunting a tame lion.”
As darkness descends Tobie and his family invite us to join them around a roaring braai fire. In his enclosure Lobengula waits patiently for the humans to retire for the night so he can again take up his watch.
We toast the animal with a can of Lion lager and listen as his roar echoes in the night, proclaiming his status as king of this farm.