Saving the white lion

TARA BROWN: Dawn in Africa and a remarkable journey begins. After a life in captivity, Mara the white lioness and her three cubs — Regias, Zaiera and Latava — are about to be released into the wild. A decade ago, Linda Tucker gave up her job as a highly-paid advertising executive to dedicate her life to preserving South Africa's rare and exotic white lions. There are only 300 left in the world, all in captivity.

LINDA TUCKER: There's absolute love in my heart but also quite a lot of pain because of the way humanity treats them.

TARA BROWN: They are a very majestic animal, aren't they?

LINDA TUCKER: They are. They are the ultimate king of the beasts — the ultimate.

TARA BROWN: These lions aren't albinos. Rather, they're a throwback to an ancient bloodline created by a rare, recessive gene. It was only 30 years ago that their existence in the wild was even confirmed. It's confronting to watch, but the lions are being darted for their own safety. Mara and the cubs were born in a zoo and for the past nine months they've been kept at this game reserve in preparation for their release. She's a fighter, isn't she?

LINDA TUCKER: She is … she'll fight till the end, I think.

TARA BROWN: Are you okay?

LINDA TUCKER: Well, it is really emotional.

TARA BROWN: But the lions' return to South Africa's Timbavati region is also very controversial. Many fear it's doomed to failure — that white lions simply can't survive in the wild. They'll either be killed by other lions or hunted to extinction. We're on the trail of a lion. Chris McBride knows more about white lions than anyone in the world. He was the first to document their existence in the 1970s and it's from his research that he believes Linda's project won't work. Lions are territorial beasts, more likely to kill than co-exist with those introduced from captivity.

CHRIS McBRIDE: You will not be able to return a lion that's white, pink, yellow or blue to the wild, because it will be chased out by the resident males.

TARA BROWN: We find Chris McBride camped on the banks of the Kafue River in remotest Zambia, working on his latest research. After a lifetime of lion watching, his greatest moment as a scientist is still the discovery, three decades ago, of two white lion cubs.

CHRIS McBRIDE: Oh it was magic, because it was so unexpected but there it was under the tree. It was so unexpected to see something like that.

TARA BROWN: Chris's chance finding enchanted the world, but it also exposed them to trophy hunters willing to pay big money to kill these rare animals. The dilemma was leave the cubs in the wild or place them in the safety of the zoo. So the decision to remove them from the wild, why was that made?

CHRIS McBRIDE: Because they would have been shot. I mean, I would rather have them in a zoo, if it's a large enough enclosure, than have them dead.

TARA BROWN: Australian vet Steve Van Mil is also convinced the project will work. Steve is part of an international effort to save white lions from extinction and he's volunteered to help Linda. We're now on our way — a marathon nine-hour journey by car and plane that will take us from South Africa's southern-most province all the way up into the country's north-east corner. It's a journey into an unknown future for Mara and her cubs, one that could end in triumph or disaster but one that Linda's determined to make. I know you're very relaxed about it, Linda, but I just hope they don't wake up. It's not natural for them to fly. I'm beginning to wonder if it's natural for any of us to fly in this — a romantic but ancient DC-3. But they tell me this beautiful old bird has been criss-crossing the country for the past 60 years without incident, though never before with such precious cargo. How are they travelling?

STEVE VAN MIL: They're travelling really well, Tara. I'm very, very pleased.

TARA BROWN: Do you see this as a grand adventure yourself?

STEVE VAN MIL: It's terribly exciting. I don't know who else in the world has been able to sit with four white lions in the back of a plane like this and particularly as these animals are extinct in the wild and they're being reintroduced into the wild. That's a big moment for any species of animal, but particularly for such magnificent, big cats like this.

TARA BROWN: It's smooth flying now, but Linda Tucker's mission has encountered plenty of flak and made many enemies, none more powerful and vocal than South Africa's hunting industry.

MARIUS PRINSLOO: For me she's a "Miss Nobody" in the game business. She's nobody. I think she's there for her own benefit, begging money from people. What does she know about nature conservation? What does she know about nature?

TARA BROWN: Big game operators like Marius Prinsloo argue rather than returning lions to the wild, this is how to save them — by hunting them. The argument is by allowing landowners to charge hunters to shoot lions on their property they'll be more willing to breed and conserve them. You're saying trophy hunters are conservationists?

MARIUS PRINSLOO: Conservationists, yes. Because they spend money, they shoot those animals, that money gets ploughed back into conservation again.

TARA BROWN: Here at Komori Lodge, Marius runs one of South Africa's biggest captive breeding programs.

MARIUS PRINSLOO: As you will see on the right, there's too many animals for this property already.

TARA BROWN: The animals reared here are destined for nature parks, zoos and hunting reserves. Most prized are his white lions and Marius is convinced the only way to ensure their existence is by breeding them in the safety of a managed environment like his farm.

MARIUS PRINSLOO: We don't rear lions just for the sake of having them hunted. The thing we want to do is for humans to enjoy these animals, to see them, that they can appreciate these nice, majestic animals.

TARA BROWN: As you can see, white lion cubs are irresistible — they're adorable. They're just like big, playful … ow! … pussy cats. But it's when they become too big to play with, that their future is then in the lap of the gods. Stop it! Ouch! The two white lion cubs that I met at your property and played with … what will happen to them?

MARIUS PRINSLOO: They will go ... if they stay with me they will go in a breeding project. If I sell them to another guy, he can do with them what he likes.

TARA BROWN: So in reality they may be hunted?

MARIUS PRINSLOO: They may be hunted.

TARA BROWN: It's from this fate Linda says she's now delivering Mara and the cubs. Finally, we arrive in Timbavati. Stretching out before us, this vast plain is home to Africa's most magnificent wildlife. But the big question is will the white lions also thrive here? Linda believes with careful management they can. Is this a happy moment for you or a sombre moment?

LINDA TUCKER: It's just so full of emotion I couldn't describe it. I'm happy but I'm ... I'm ... it's just extremely emotional because it's been such a long battle to make this happen.

TARA BROWN: For the local Shangaan people, the return of the white lions is cause for celebration. Their culture is steeped in myth about the lions and the village witch doctor tells us the spirits are happy. But Linda's critics believe there's too much blind faith and not enough science in the lions' release — that it goes against the laws of nature.

CHRIS McBRIDE: The fact that there are no white lions in the wild anywhere in any numbers, certainly not prior to them, is, in my mind, clear proof. If it was a successful adaptation, there would be prides of white lions around, just as there are white polar bears around. There are none.

TARA BROWN: Is there any chance that by bringing them here, bringing them home, you're, in fact, risking their very existence?

LINDA TUCKER: That has been suggested. I don't believe that for a moment. This is the place they were born, this is the place from which they were removed and this is the place to which they should be returned.

TARA BROWN: So they've settled in okay?

LINDA TUCKER: Completely, yeah. Just look completely at home. Very, very happy.

TARA BROWN: You sound a bit surprised?

LINDA TUCKER: Well, I expected them to take longer, to be a little disorientated but it was as if they had set foot on their homeland.

TARA BROWN: This is a staged release. In the next couple of months they'll move into a 300-hectare enclosure and then in a few years to 12,000 hectares of bushland where they'll mix with wild tawny lions. But even if these normal lions accept them, interbreeding could destroy the very thing that makes white lions unique — their colour. Is there any chance that if you let nature take its course that the white lion gene will simply be bred out?

LINDA TUCKER: There's every chance of that. You know, I respect the laws of nature and should that be the case, well, then, so be it. Nature's chosen to go that route.

TARA BROWN: Many see Linda Tucker as well-meaning but misguided. There's no doubt her approach is unusual. She even believes she can communicate with lions. And it's this eccentricity that has played into the hands of her detractors.

MARIUS PRINSLOO: I think she's crazy. She must be smoking some dope or something. That woman is not all there. The people who argue against you, they don't agree with it because they think you're deluded?

LINDA TUCKER: We're in a state of crisis. The big cats all over the world are in critical endangered status, so any project that is here to support nature should be regarded with seriousness.

TARA BROWN: But what nature created through a twist of genetic fate it can just as surely take away. Look, look at them. They're great. It will be many years before we know if Linda Tucker's ambitious project to set these lions free will succeed. For Linda, there's no doubt. Mara and her cubs will be the first of many white lions back in the wild.

LINDA TUCKER: This is not only a national treasure. This is a global treasure. These animals need to be protected for humanity and for the world and they need to return to the land where they were born. So ultimately I'm hoping that others will see the importance of this.