Living among lions takes pride of place

Chen Jianxing turned his boyhood fascination with these majestic creatures into a full-time job, writes Deng Zhangyu.

When Chen Jianxing stops his off-road vehicle, about five meters away from the lioness that he has named Lisa, she comes close, rubbing her body against his car to scratch itchy places. Sometimes, the lioness Chen has tracked for years even lies under his vehicle to avoid the scorching sun, leaving only her tail hanging out.

Chen's off-road vehicle has no roof. For Lisa, it's really easy to jump onto the car and attack the driver. But Chen knows Lisa never will.

"Lions seldom attack humans. They don't eat humans," says Chen, who has passionately tracked the lion pride Lisa is in for two years. From the end of 2010 to 2012, Chen closely followed the Manze pride along Lake Manze in the Selous Game Reserve of southern Tanzania.

Chen Jianxing works for Tanzania National Parks. The job enables him to watch lions freely. Photos provided by Chen Jianxing

Chen is a diehard lion lover. It's common for him to spend several days and nights watching the Manze pride. He watched how a lion from other prides defeated the lion king in the Manze pride to become the new king and how Lisa leads the Manze pride to jointly kill their prey.

"I feel quite comfortable to stay with the pride," says the 35-year-old.

Usually, lions sleep more than 20 hours a day. Only in the mornings and evenings do they move around and hunt for their prey. Chen says when the lions sleep under a tree, he also sleeps on his open car several meters away.

Chen has lived in Tanzania for seven years. He now works for the Tanzania National Parks. The job enables him to watch lions freely without any limitation. Previously, he worked as a diplomat at the Chinese embassy in Tanzania.

"Chen loves lions. It's rare to combine one's job with one's interest. He is a pure idealist," says Allen Kijazi, director general of Tanzania National Parks.

Watching lions in Tanzania was Chen's childhood obsession. When he was in primary school, he loved watching TV programs about nature and wildlife and fell in love with the lions from Tanzania, although all he learned was from documentaries and TV programs.

"When I was a boy, I made a wish that one day I would go to Tanzania and see real lions," says Chen.

At 15, Chen spent half a year writing a book about an imaginary lion living at the Serengeti in northern Tanzania. It was a draft. But in 2013, his first book recording the life of the Manze pride was published in China, containing many photos he had taken.

"In the 1990s, most Chinese had no idea about Africa. But I watched so much of it and collected as many materials as I could, so I felt it was like my second hometown," Chen says.

In 2010, Chen started his new job working for the Tanzania National Parks' new project in the Selous Game Reserve, one of the largest mammal reserves in the world and home to about 4,000 lions.

Chen's workplace is a 40-minute drive to Lake Manze in the Selous, where he first met the Manze pride of 14 lions. It took about two months for him to make the pride feel comfortable with his presence, and he gave each member a name.

Lisa was then a 10-year-old mother of two lion cubs. The average lifespan for a lioness is about 12 to 15 years. Lisa often roars and shows her sharp teeth to strangers, says Chen, warning them not to be close. But Chen was allowed to stay five to 10 meters away and sometimes even closer.

Generally, tourists on safari would bring bodyguards with them. Chen often sleeps alone in his camp, with lions walking by outside, roaring.

"I felt horrible the first time. But later I quickly got used to it. I believe they will not hurt me. And it's true," Chen says.

Chen watched Lisa defeat invaders who wanted to eat her babies. There are also stray lions that never abandon each other when facing a threat to their lives.

"Like men, lions are animals of rich feelings and high sociality. They are not as vicious as people imagine," Chen says.

However, it's undeniable there are a few human-eating lions. These are mostly lions that fail to catch wildlife and happen to confront humans, says Chen.

Because he regularly visits Lake Manze, he is often required to help other organizations, to provide photos for them and create profiles for each lion, just like humans' IDs.

Chen met ecologist Craig Packer this way. Packer spent 40 years studying lions in Africa.

"I want to do my doctorate with Craig Packer in the future, to deepen my study on lions," says Chen.

Although his interest is lions, as an employee of Tanzania National Parks, Chen also devotes himself to animal conservation, especially combating wildlife poaching.

Elephant poaching is rampant in Africa due to the increasing demand from the global market. The national parks need money to hire more rangers and equip them against poachers, says Chen.

According to Chen, the Selous Game Reserve is three times larger than the Serengeti National Park. However, the former has only 300 rangers while the latter has already had more than 1,000.

Chen says many rangers in Tanzania want to learn Chinese martial arts, such as free combat, to fight poachers.

"I go back to China to raise money and work with Chinese NGOs to call for people not to buy tusks," adds Chen, who returned to China in early September.

Talking about his future plans, the passionate lion lover says he will continue watching lions, flying between China and Tanzania to promote animal protection for his second hometown.

Contact the writer at dengzhangyu@chinadaily.com.

(China Daily USA 02/04/2014 page10)