Zoos, Circuses, Safaris: A Gallery of Captivity

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Marjan last lion of Afganistan

He was the last Afghanistan's lion, Marjan. Born in 1976, he was sent to Kabul in 1978, as a gift from Germany. At the end of soviet occupation, in 1989, Afghanistan entered a period of civil war that lasted until 1992. Kabul plunged into chaos. Its zoo was in the middle of battlefield. It was bombed several times and lost its nursing station. In 1995, a soldier entered lion enclosure to show his bravery, and stroke Chucha, Marjan's lioness. Starving, Marjan attacked and killed him. The following day soldier's brother threw a grenade at lion's face. Marjan lost his sight, his hearing and a part of his jaw. The soldier's brother was murdered a week later.
In 1996, Taliban invaded Kabul and left the zoo abandoned. The zoo's employees who no longer received a salary begged for money to feed the animals. But many of animals died and some were even killed and eaten by starving population. Twenty-six years earlier, the zoo was home to 417 animals. But in 1998, only 19 were still alive, including the lions. People regularly threw stones at them.
When the Americans took over Kabul in November 2001, after six weeks of bombing, Marjan was Afghanistan's last lion. That's when the world discovered his story. He received veterinary care for the first time in years. Unfortunately he died several weeks later, in January 2002. Turned into a symbol of Kabul's suffering, a memorial was created in his honor inside the zoo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjan_(lion) Reply