Lunch with the African lion pride

If you’ve visited the Park before, you might have spotted the African lion pride at Woburn Safari Park tucking into a feast on your drive through the safari.

Please note: This post contains close up images of the lions eating meat.  Caution is advised for young or sensitive readers. 

In the wild, lions work together to take down prey as large as buffaloes, rhinos, hippos, and giraffe. However, scavenged food actually provides more than 50% of their diets - so on the African Savannah, a pride will regularly use strength in numbers to ambush other carnivores, in order to steal their kill.

Woburn Safari Park's lions enjoy a feast

At the Park, keepers work hard to replicate the lions’ natural feeding habits, encouraging them to use the energy they would normally expend during hunting on other activities.

While it may not look very appealing to us humans, keeping skin and bones on meat makes feeding a tougher task for the lions and keeps their feeding habits as close to natural as it can be.

The pride is also fed every four to five days to recreate the feast and fasting days they would experience out in the wild.

And, instead of having one set feeding location, keepers also vary where their feeds are placed each time. This helps to encourage the lions to use their natural hunting abilities as they work together to seek out the location of their meal.

Lions are naturally social animals and the pride at Woburn is no exception. So, while the family unit can sometimes be seen squabbling with one another on feed days, once they’ve settled their differences, they will more often than not sit alongside one another as they tuck into their meal.

How to see the lions at Woburn Safari Park

Woburn Safari Park is home to a large pride of African lions including females Dakota, Zuri, Tyra and Abi, as well as male Joco, juveniles Kahari and Kojo, and one-year-old cubs Amara, Zulu, Hasani and Iniko.

The pride at Woburn live in a 32 acre reserve with the freedom to roam and exercise within a larger space than many zoo environments. 

Their enclosure can be found within Kingdom of the Carnivores on the drive-through Road Safari.

Book your tickets online to see the pride roaming freely within their large enclosure!