LazyPaw Animal Hospitals is knowledgeable about many more animals than just dogs and cats. We’re also experts when it comes to farm, equine, and even exotic animals! To celebrate our affection for some of the world’s more fantastic creatures, today we’re sharing some of our favorite exotic animal stories.
Christian the Loving Lion
Christian the lion was born in 1962 at the Ilfracombe Zoo in Devon, UK. His mother rejected the cubs, who were then cared for by the staff. Not long after birth, Christian and his sister were sold to Harrods department store in London. Friends, Australian natives, and fellow travelers Ace Bourke and John Rendall were visiting Harrods for the first time, and to their surprise, they ended up purchasing Christian on the spot. The lion lived comfortably with them on Kings Road in Chelsea, but though Christian was companionable and good natured, Bourke and Rendall realized he needed a more natural environment with room to play. The lion was growing quickly, and the two found partners who helped relocate Christian to Kenya and introduce him to the wild. A year after he was settled, Bourke and Rendall visited the lion. Incredible footage of the joyous reunion has been watched for more than 40 years by more than 100 million people.
Congo the Artistic Chimpanzee
In the late 1950s, a chimp turned the art world upside down. The London Zoo resident was discovered by zoologist and surrealist painter Desmond Morris, who noticed Congo the chimpanzee’s talent when the animal took to doodling with pencil and paper at age two. The blossoming “lyrical abstract impressionist” created more than 400 drawings and paintings by age four, each displaying a purposeful sense of composition and symmetry. If a painting was taken away before Congo felt it was finished, the chimp would start to scream and have a fit; on the other hand, if Congo felt a painting was done, he refused to continue working on it even if he was urged to keep going. One of Congo’s paintings hung in Pablo Picasso’s studio, and in 2005 three of his paintings sold for £14,400 at Bonhams auction house—work by Andy Warhol and Renoir received so little interest at the sale that they had to be withdrawn.
Rajan the Reliable Elephant
At age 60, Rajan the elephant is now retired from work as a living water taxi in the Indian Ocean. But the animal still loves to take a dive every day with his human caregiver, Mahout, who ran a ferry service with Rajan for more than 30 years around the Andaman Islands. Motorized boats have replaced the elephant’s water taxi service, marking a new era in an area where elephants swimming to and fro toting humans and cargo were once a common sight.