These animals grow best in a familiar environment, whether it be land, water, or air. They get the best food for their health and growth, and they go to the right temperature level to maintain them safe and healthy. If they are in known territories, it also coincides with their knowledge of their killers and begins their survival instincts.

However, this is not real for many animals around the world.

Many animals are caged and bred in captivity. You see most of them in zoos, amusement parks, or aquariums. Others keep them as pets even if they are indicated to be free in the wild. And when humans do this to animals, humans, also, must take action to bring them back to where they belong.

Gladly, this is the happy-ending story of these four lions bred in captivity.

Angela, Bellone, Saïda, and Louga were born and bred in captivity. They spent their whole lives going around France and performing for a circus business. They were forced to perform and do tricks before loud, noisy crowds.

Their living problems were much from ideal.

They are cramped up in cages as the circus moves from one location to one more. Who recognizes what they were fed, however we bet they didn’t obtain the best nutrition either.

All four lions were rescued by Born Free Structure in 2018.

The structure started to raise funds to transport these lions back to South Africa. Various other animal welfare foundations and partners, like Lazy Lions, provided specialized care for these big cats.

Sadly, the journey wasn’t easy for them due to COVID.

The pandemic stunted their strategies and pushed them back a couple of years. However, the foundation saw this as a possibility to assist the animals recover, gather more donations, and prepare for the transfer. During the pandemic, the lions remained in a rescue center in France. However the plan was always to bring them to their homeland.

And in 2022, the lions lastly went to a sanctuary in their homeland.

It was a long journey from France to South Africa, where they will certainly remain at Shamwari Private Game Reserve. They are still in an confined area, but they are freer to move around a three-acre lot.

Lions bred in captivity are not fit to be sent out straight to the wild.

But the reserve is a good transition as they gradually adjust to their new environment. According to Born Free Supervisor Catherine Gillson:

“The views, sounds, and scents of their fellow rescued big cats will certainly increase their senses immediately as they start to acclimatize to their new lives. They are now in their permanently home in Africa,” she told BBC News.

They took small steps and sniffed the air before they went out. The royalties of the jungle ran easily yet took time to smell the land and plants around them. Angela, Bellone, Saïda, and Louga are now home. And it was all thanks to the beautiful humans who valued the life of these lions.