LION COUNTRY – My Life Dedicated to Africa's Last Wilderness

Valentin Grüner is living many people’s dream: at the age of twenty, he gave up his home near the Bodensee for life as a gamekeeper and conservationist in Africa, and moved to one of the remotest areas on the planet, in the Kalahari desert in Botswana. Everything changed for him when he found an abandoned female lion cub nine years ago: from then on, little Sirga dictated his daily life, grew into an imposing big cat, and leaned to hunt and feed herself as she roamed with Valentin. It was only through immense willpower, creativity and perseverance that Valentin eventually managed to build a reserve in the African wilderness for Sirga – returning her to the wild was not an option. The risk that the lioness would become a threat to both humans and animals was too great. Now Sirga roams through her own territory, fitted with a satellite collar, under Valentin’s watchful gaze. In his book, Valentin Grüner writes about his mission, his adventurous story – and his friendship with the lioness Sirga.