BREAKING NEWS: DEAN SCHNEIDER RELEASES LION PRIDE
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PRESS RELEASE
DEAN SCHNEIDER RELEASES LION PRIDE
South Africa, 27 Mai 2023 – The biggest milestone in the history of the Hakuna Mipaka Mission has been set. A few weeks ago, the world's most famous wildlife ambassador, Dean Schneider, successfully released the first two lions of the Hakuna Mipaka lion pride into the 600'000 square meter "Live Wild" reserve he created himself. As big as 84 football fields, it is the largest known captive lion habitat in the South African province where Hakuna Mipaka Oasis is located. The entire movement of the lions has been documented by a big production team to integrate this achievement into Dean Schneider’s Biopic Movie which is currently being shot and produced by the renowned production company ZAG.
Dean Schneider is a Swiss guy, who six years ago moved into the wilderness of South Africa to follow his dream of protecting and preserving the planets wildlife. Today he lives a life alongside a pride of lions, one of his best friends is a spotted hyena and he’s a father to two rescued capuchin monkeys. Besides that, he managed to build a global voice through social media where almost 30 million people follow his journey in the wild.
"We need to learn to love them, exactly the way they are and not the way we wish them to be." (Dean Schneider)
Dean's mission is to bring animals into people’s hearts because he strongly believes that we humans only protect what we love. He is taking people with him into his world full of excitement, fascination, emotions, and crazy moments where they will learn alongside how to love, respect, understand and protect the natural world and its beautiful beings.
The Lion Pride
The Hakuna Mipaka lion pride consists of six fully grown lions. The three males and three females arrived at Dean's sanctuary "The Hakuna Mipaka Oasis" at a very young age. They all came from completely different captive environments but since they are the only true social big cats, Dean used their already existing biological desire to socialize in order to create a family (lion pride). King Dexter was the first lion in Deans care, followed by Leo and Nayla. A couple of months later the gentle giant Snow found his way to the Oasis and last but not least Kiara and Khaleesi the two sisters joined the family.
Having successfully created the pride of lions which Dean is a part of, he decided to dedicate the biggest part of his reserve to them. The goal was to offer the lion family a life as wild as possible and recreate the feeling of freedom within them. He got in action and started the Live Wild Project. 2 million sqm of pure African wilderness were exclusively dedicated to the Lions and over the past four years Dean managed to enclose more than 600’000 sqm according to the specifications of Nature Conservation South Africa. After a lot of paperwork, administrative processes, huge investments and several discussions with the Scientific Department of Nature Conservation, he finally received the permission to move the very first two lions, Dexter and Snow into the Live Wild area.
The Movement of the Pride
Because of heavy ranking fights between the three males Dexter, Leo and Snow the lion pride is now temporarily split and will be released in the Live Wild reserve in two groups. Dexter and Snow form the first group and Leo and the ladies will follow at a later stage as the second group. The risky and challenging movement of Dexter and Snow was accompanied and observed by several veterinarians as well as three experts from Nature Conservation. It was a big event were both lions were anesthetized at the same time and brought to their new home on the back of a truck through a very bumpy, steep and wild road. After two challenging hours both lions were successfully dropped in their new home. The movement was a big success: seeing two captive bred lions exploring the great wilderness of the Live Wild area is the biggest milestone in the history of the Hakuna Mipaka Oasis and a very emotional moment in Dean Schneider’s life. The entire movement of the lions has been documented by a big production team to integrate this achievement into Dean Schneider’s Biopic Movie which is currently being shot and produced by the renowned production company ZAG. Further information about the movie will be announced soon.
CLICK HERE to watch the official Youtube video to get more detailed information about the movement of the lions.
It is important to keep in mind that none of the six lions of the Hakuna Mipaka pride have ever been trained or tamed. They were born in captivity but their life at the Hakuna Mipaka Oasis allowed them to develop their full potential to be a lion. They learned at a very young age how to open up prey animals by themselves, how to share and eat amongst one another in the pride, how to fight, how to socialize and take care of one another equally like wild lions do. Nonetheless like every captive bred predator they have lost their natural fear of humans which is the main reason why they can’t be released somewhere in an uncontrolled wilderness area in Africa.
Facing new Challenges
With over 600’000 sqm, it is the largest known captive lion habitat in the South African province where Hakuna Mipaka Oasis is located. The biggest challenge is and remains that there are no accessible references for such a project. Various discussions with specialists, veterinarians, as well as the personal observations of Dean Schneider through his years of living with the lions have shaped the project Live Wild. However, the project brings many new challenges. The ground surveillance by securities had to be strengthened due to poaching which is one of the biggest issues and risks for the lions. An additional and very expensive electrical installation was needed, which is 100% sustainable thanks to solar power.
Depending on incoming donations the 600’000 sqm Live Wild area can still be extended to over 2 million sqm. This would extend the lions territory and with that give them the ability hopefully to partly hunt for themselves. Nonetheless there are also other essential projects for other animals on the Hakuna Mipaka Oasis which also need funding and obviously force Dean to split donations according to priorities.
Many challenges have already been mastered and many are still to come for Dean and his team. But even these will be mastered according to the motto "Hakuna Mipaka", which is Swahili and means "No Limits".
CONTACT
Interview Requests: info@hakunamipaka.com
Please keep in mind that we are receiving a lot of requests for personal interviews with Dean Schneider. Due to that it may take some time until you receive a response. To be able to check your interview request in detail, we kindly ask you to provide us with the following information:
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USE OF CONTENT
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The content of Dean Schneider's verified profiles may be used if it is reused in the same context (sense) and unchanged. At no time should the image of Dean Schneider or Hakuna Mipaka be damaged. When using the content, the source must be mentioned in any case. If the published content of Dean Schneider is used as advertising, modified, presented in a negative way or only a part of the original file is used, a use is not allowed. A use in this case is only allowed if a permission by Dean Schneider has been granted.
ABOUT DEAN SCHNEIDER
Dean’s mission is to bring animals into people’s hearts. Because he strongly believes that humans only protect what they love. And they only love what they know and to whom they are emotionally connected with. He sees it as his duty to build an emotional bridge from humans to animals which is the foundation for all wildlife conservation to happen: "I bring animals into people’s hearts by inspiring and educating them all around the world about the beauty of the animal kingdom."
Dean was born in Switzerland in 1992 and followed a very ordinary path to adulthood, ending up in the finance industry as a financial advisor. After a very successful year working in finances, he founded his own company, which then, over the next years, allowed him to generate the financial foundation to launch the Hakuna Mipaka project. At the age of 24 he sold his company, moved to South Africa. Nowadays, he lives on his own farm of 400 hectare of pure African wilderness, is a member of a lion pride, a hyena's best friend and a daddy of two monkeys. Besides that, he has built a global voice for the planet’s wildlife over the past five years and is the world’s most famous wildlife conservationist and with almost 30 million followers on Social Networks he is one of the fastest-growing social media personalities in the world.
DEAN SCHNEIDER FOUNDATION
The Dean Schneider Foundation is a government supervised non-profit organization (charitable foundation) which initiates, supports, and operates worldwide projects for the protection of animals, in particular wild animals. 100% of the donations are benefiting the animals at the Hakuna Mipaka Oasis without any marketing-, flight-, or content production costs being deducted. The costs which need to be covered are such as vet bills, food for the animals, costs for security guards and animal caretakers, electricity, maintenance work on the camps and much more.
Once the costs for the Hakuna Mipaka Oasis are covered, the remaining funds are used for projects aimed at the protection, care and/or reintroduction of animals into the wild. It also pursues projects that highlight the importance of nature and animals while emphasizing the responsibility of treating both respectfully. Additionally, the Foundation is responsible for the development and implementation of training programs and events, which aim to raise awareness for nature and wildlife and stress the significance of animals for healthy ecosystems. In particular, the programs strive to demonstrate that the respectful “coexistence” of humans, nature and animals is perfectly possible. Every partner project has been visited personally by Dean Schneider.
Video: Dean Schneider Foundation Website: Donate here