Officials from the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE) and the National Secretariat for Animal Health (SENASA) started lion Kivú’s transfer towards a better place, where he will live under adequate conditions.
Kivu, a geriatric-stage animal and suffers from several diseases that complicate his health, is being transferred to Zooave, where authorities prepared a suitable area for his stay and he won’t be exposed to the public, after 18 years of being a tourist attraction.
In the new facility, Kivu will start an adaptation process, with an 300m2 area with greenery, trunks, a cave, platforms and a water tank, all built to meet international standards. Kivú’s new home will be located in an area surrounded by nature and people won’t be able to visit him.
After multiple warnings from MINAE and SENASA, FUNDAZOO, in charge of Simón Bolívar Zoo, didn’t manage to improve the conditions in which Kivu lived. The company definitively failed to meet the requirements. In addition, Santa Ana Conservation Center, the other place where Kivú was supposed to live, didn’t meet the appropriate conditions either.