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Ossie - father of Vivian, Roland and Norman
Hilda - mother of above
Carl Bristow was always known as Ossie rather than Carl and had a passion for animals of the wild because of this passion numerous people gave him animals they found or tried to raise and couldn't until such time that his garden and home at Sentinel Ranch on the Limpopo became so full of animals that he decided to find a property ( Le Rhone in Masvingo) in which he could start an orphanage for these animals and obviously many more to come. He would where ever possible try to release the animal back into the wild but as we all know this is not always possible and hence opened up the farm to the public to enable him to charge an entrance fee which in turn would help with supporting the park and the animals that were not possible to be released back into the wild.
Le Rhone farm in Masvingo was purchased for the orphanage and in 1968 was officially opened as a private game park to the public. It had a drive through lion section and various other drive troughs which consisted of plains game and cheetahs.
Ossie not only ran the Game Park but also did a lot of work within the movie industry starting way back in 1956. He worked alongside many great names with his lions and animals. He always had his favorite animals and had such an understanding of his lions that he could control a full grown male lion with hand movements.
In 1976 Ossie decided to leave Masvingo leaving behind his son Vivian to continue running the game park and he moved to the Capital of the country, Harare and opened up the Lion and Cheetah Park where there was more schools, tourists and general public.
His intention was and still continues throughout the family to educate the children and people of Zimbabwe of conservation of animals, he always said that if only one child off of a bus decided after being at the Lion Park to save, protect and nurture the animals around us and not to just eat them, then he had accomplished everything he ever wanted from life.
Ossie Bristow was tragically killed in a car crash in 1982. In turn his son Vivian moved to the Lion Park and continued the work of his father out of the 3 sons Vivian was the only one that had the talent with the animals and carried on working with the animals.
Vivian has continued working with animals at the Park and also continued working within the movie industry and made many feature films, documentaries and commercials for numerous different countries and has traveled with his animals all over Africa, Kenya, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa etc to make these movies and commercials.
Vivian and his wife (English born) Carol had 2 sons Tony and Graeme which in turn have also taken to the animals and both have continued in the family business. Tony unfortunately passed away in 2000 from cancer. Graeme's wife also a British, born Julie has two children Benjamin and Georgina who will be the fourth generation to be working with these animals.
They all have an extreme passion for the animals carrying on with the Lion and Cheetah Park and continuing to educate the children and people of Zimbabwe, since the park opened it has become a favourite destination of the schools of Zimbabwe and we have schools from all over the country attending the park for educational tours. He has also continued with the movie industry and has a great relationship with the BBC wildlife unit in England and has made the movies such as 'Lions - Spy in the Den' 'Pride' 'Big Cat Diaries' but to name a few recent ones.
Julie felt that Graeme's lion expertise was under utilised and suggested that he exposes this talent, by sharing it with others through lion walking. Graeme started walking with his Pride at Pamuzinda Safari Lodge. He has now joined the Shearwater team in Victoria Falls. In 2007 we moved to Mauritius with another new pride and now you to can
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"Walk with the Pride"
Right here in Mauritius |
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