A dramatic rescue took place recently in one of the most dangerous places on earth, the Iraqi city of Mosul. Hundreds of thousands of Mosul’s residents had fled the war zone, where Iraqi forces have battled ISIS. Among those left behind were two residents of the abandoned Muntazah al-Nour zoo. With no warden to feed or care for them, some of the zoo’s animals had escaped; many more had starved to death or been eaten by cage mates. Improbably, Simba the lion and Lula the bear survived until they were evacuated in April, flown to safety in Jordan by the rescue organization Four Paws International. Confined to their tiny cages, Simba and Lula had remained alive only because of the remarkable kindness of their human neighbours—people on the brink of extinction themselves, who had alerted the rescue organization, and brought the animals food and water despite having little of either themselves.
Lisa Bryn Rundle was a producer at CBC Radio’s Q for nine years and is now with Out in the Open. She co-created and co-produced the show Tooth and Claw, about our complicated relationships with animals. A former senior editor at the Walrus, she has written for Chatelaine, Reader’s Digest, Maclean’s and others.
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