By Raphael Hickenbottom
In a development some conservationists are calling ‘as exciting as it is disturbing’, actor Johnny Depp has confirmed that his property is host to at least a dozen Barbary lions.
The lions, also known as Atlas or Nubian lions, have not been observed in the wild since the latter part of the nineteenth century. While there have been many claims of Barbary lions existing in captivity over the last few years, Depp’s animals are the first to have been confirmed via extensive DNA testing.
The normally reclusive actor, who is currently promoting the third Pirates of the Caribbean film, recently granted top geneticists from the Oxford University-based Barbary Lion Project access to his French Villa where, the actor says, the lions have lived for at least the last five years.
Monumental Discovery
“A discovery like this is always welcome,” says Delia White, spokesperson for the Barbary Lion Project, an initiative that has been attempting to manipulate DNA to breed new Barbary lions for over a decade now. “It is, unquestionably, bizarre that these lions appear to have simply shown up, but at the same time it gives hope to a species that was long thought extinct.”
For his part, the actor, who first rose to prominence with films like Edward Scissorhands and the television series 21 Jump Street in the 1980s, is willing to accept that some things just happen.
Says the actor, speaking via telephone from his current media tour in the United States: “You look at all that’s out there. You look at war, famine, starvation, globalization, poverty, AIDS and homelessness — and you’ve got to wonder, well, maybe some lions who were thought gone just came back. Maybe it means something or maybe it doesn’t. I don’t know. I’m not a physicist.”
In Good Health
The lions are apparently in good health, having found a suitable climate in the hilly woodlands surrounding Depp’s French villa. Upon early news of the lions’ presence on the ranch, the celebrity blogosphere was quick to attribute the recent illness of Depp’s daughter, Lily-Rose, to some sort of lion-based attack. It’s something Depp is quick to dismiss.
“These animals aren’t dangerous. I know that. I can feel that. I may not know a lot about animal husbandry [laughs] but I know enough to be able to see into an extinct miracle lion’s soul. I believe if there was evil there I would have seen it. I did not see any.”
With the animals now confirmed as Barbary, White and the other members of the Oxford University team are eager to study their behaviour and encourage breeding amongst the big cats. “We have the potential to save an animal we might never have seen again,” they said in a prepared media statement. “This is a great day not only for biology, but for the continued sustainability of the natural world.”
Depp, however, opposes any attempts to encourage the animals to breed. “It’s not that I’m against that sort of thing,” he explains, “because I’m not. But sometimes you just have to take a step back. To let that which will happen given happenstance continue to happen, given the right circumstances in which it might happen. I do not want to interfere with that. It wouldn’t be right.”
“There’s a cosmic energy at my Villa right now. These lions are a part of that.”
