Lion taming

Circus director and lion tamer Gerd Siemoneit-Barum during a performance in Nordenham, Germany in May 1977

Lion taming is the taming and training of lions either for protection, or more commonly, entertainment, particularly in the circus.

About Lion taming

The term often applies to the taming and display of other big cats such as tigers, leopards, jaguars, cheetahs, and cougars. People often use lion taming as a metaphor for a dangerous activity, due to the obvious risks of toying with powerful, instinctive carnivores.

Lion taming occurs in zoos across the world, to enable the keepers to carry out medical procedures and feedings.

The Captive Animals Protection Society maintains that animal welfare cannot be guaranteed in circuses.^[1]

Note that taming an individual lion is not the same as domestication of a species.

Lion tamers

• George Wombwell (1777–1850), founder of Wombwell's Traveling Menagerie, raised many animals himself, including the first lion bred in captivity in Britain. He was buried in Highgate Cemetery, under a statue of his lion Nero.
• Isaac A. Van Amburgh (1811–1865), American animal trainer who developed the first trained wild animal act in modern times.^[2] He was known for acts of daring, such as placing his head inside the jaws of a wild cat,^[3] and became known as “The Lion King.”.^[2]
• Martini Maccomo (c.1839-1871) was a lion tamer in Victorian Britain.
• Carl Hagenbeck (1844–1913) was a merchant of wild animals.
• Suresh Biswas (1861-1905), Indian circus performer popular in Europe in the 1880s for taming wild animals.
• Rose Flanders Bascom (1880-1915), first American female lion tamer.
• Mabel Stark (1889–1968) was one of the world's first women tiger tamers.
• Clyde Beatty (1903–1965) was among the pioneers to use a chair in training big cats.
• Gunther Gebel-Williams (1934–2001) was a world-famous animal trainer for the Red Unit with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.^[4]
• Ángel Cristo (1943-2010), the most famous lion and tiger tamer in Spain, known for his numerous accidents under lion and tiger attacks. In 1982 he won the Medalla de Oro del Festival Internacional del Circo ('Golden Medal of the Circus International Festival').^[5]
• Martin Lacey, (born 1947), animal trainer, owner of the Great British Circus, trained most of the tigers used in the ESSO TV advertisements in the 1970s.
• Martin Lacey, Jr., (born 1977), son of Martin, an animal trainer and performer with Circus Krone in Munich.
• Irina Bugrimova (1911–2001), the first female lion tamer in Russia

References