Working With Linton Zoo For Lion Guardians

On the 30th November 2025 we were delighted to announce that Linton Zoo have officially agreed to collaborate with us to support our conservation partner Lion Guardians. Their pledge to support our work strengthens our commitment to conservation and will allow us to grow our support towards important lion conservation efforts in the years to come. Thanks to the help of Linton Zoo, Knowsley Safari and our other zoo supporters a donation of $3600 (Approx. £2800) was sent in November 2025 to sponsor the salaries of two Lion Guardians.

We have a very long association with the team and the lions at Linton. Our charity is named after Safina, a Linton bred lioness who was born in 2005 and who lived at the zoo for 18 years. Their family of lions have been a huge part of our identity and the inspiration for our charity, her youngest offspring Kali and Nabulaa still reside at the zoo. We decided to announce on that particularly day so we could use the opportunity to commemorate Safina once more as it celebrated 20 years since the day that she was born. Pictures below show Safi and her companion Zuri at the zoo.

It is with the help of Linton Zoo that we have now started the sponsorship of a second Lion Guardian, named Kisimir Maasama!

Kisimir joined Lion Guardians in 2010 having grown up in the Mbirikani Group Ranch next to the Amboseli National Park. Linton Zoo had previously sponsored Kisimir for several years prior to the pandemic and we are very grateful that they have to decided to renew their sponsorship of him by supporting our charity. There is another link here too as Kisimir was one of the Lion Guardian's that our founder James fundraised for when he worked at Linton Zoo (2013-2015). It was this act of fundraising alongside lions Zuri and Safina at the zoo which inspired the very idea for our charity. We are therefore very proud to be officially linked to the zoo and its commitment to conservation in the wild, thanks again to Kim Simmons, Zoo Director and her team at the zoo for collaborating with us.

Kisimir, pictured above, joined as a Guardian in 2010 and maintained a consistent presence for many years. As time went on, he rose to Senior Guardian and more recently to Field Practitioner. Each step forward reflected his talent for finding lions, his ability to defuse tense community situations, and his capacity to stay focused under pressure. His eagerness to learn new skills, along with his deep commitment to peaceful coexistence, continues to define his work today.

"We are delighted to build on our relationship with Linton Zoo to create a lasting conservation legacy for Safina and her family, who I know means so much to us and the team at Linton." 

— James Welch, Chairman, Safina Lion Conservation Fund

We have however, continued our sponsorship of Olubi Ole Lairumbe "Mitiaki" for one more year. We have also received an update on Olubi with the pictures below. He was among one of Lion Guardians first recruits and they say that "Over the past two decades, he has become a symbol of courage, transformation, and dedication to conservation in Amboseli."

Guardians like "Mitiaki" work incredibly hard to mitigate any conflict and issues between lions and communities while promoting coexistence between the two. The map attached here shows his patrols over a 90 day period. When you realise that the Amboseli National Park is 151 sq. miles you truly get an idea of the extent of his work!

2026 was also a very important year for Lion Guardians as they celebrated their 20th anniversary. We are delighted to be able to support such a brilliant and pioneering organisation that has really set the groundwork for many conservation organisations when it comes to combining community support with lion conservation. For more information on Lion Guardians please follow this link here.

We are very proud to now be officially linked to Linton Zoo and its support for in-situ conservation. We look forward to continuing our work with the team at Linton and seeing what the future holds.