{"id":610285,"date":"2026-09-24T12:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T12:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/610285\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T12:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T12:44:10","slug":"former-kamo-wildlife-sanctuary-lion-cleo-dies-animal-rescue-group-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/610285\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary lion Cleo dies, animal rescue group says"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of four lions who faced being put down at a Whang\u0101rei animal park<\/a> has died in her sleep, an animal rescue group says.<\/p>\n

In a post on Facebook, HUHANZ said Cleo – a lion based at Kamo Wildlife Park in Northland – had severe non-regenerative anaemia and there was a high suspicion she had internal cancer.<\/p>\n

“Before any further intervention was needed, Cleo quietly slipped away in her sleep,” the post read.<\/p>\n

“Our team have gathered around her, surrounding Cleo with the love, tenderness and respect she deserves. And perhaps there is some comfort in knowing that when Cleo showed us something was wrong, we acted immediately.<\/p>\n

“We got her the veterinary care she needed and, importantly, we now understand that there was an underlying illness that we could not have fixed.”<\/p>\n

Cleo was born at Kamo Wildlife Park and spent her 20 years there.<\/p>\n

\"Cleo<\/p>\n

Cleo is suspected to have had cancer.<\/p>\n

HUHANZ<\/p>\n

Last November, the the directors of Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary announced the sanctuary would close and the five remaining elderly lions would be euthanised<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Operator Janette Vallance said the park’s owners, Bolton Equities, made the difficult decision to euthanise the cats, which were aged between 18 and 21.<\/p>\n

“There were no real options left. The staff and I are devastated.”<\/p>\n

HUHA stepped in and the park was purchased by ethical investors and the Lionhearts Project Trust was set up to provide for the animals’ going forward, the NZ Herald reported.<\/p>\n

At its peak in the early 2000s the park was home to 33 big cats, including lions, white tigers, leopards and cheetahs.<\/p>\n

At that time it was called Zion Wildlife Gardens and run by Craig Busch<\/a>, better known as “The Lion Man”, and his mother Patricia Busch.<\/p>\n

Busch became a national celebrity in 2004 thanks to the TV series Lion Man, and the park put Whang\u0101rei on the domestic tourism map.<\/p>\n

However, the park ran into financial difficulties in 2006, and was bailed out by Patricia Busch, who became the sole director.<\/p>\n

In 2009, after senior keeper Dalu Mncube was killed by a tiger, the then Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) ordered the temporary closure of the park for safety and management improvements.<\/p>\n

Another closure was ordered in 2014 for enclosure upgrades, this time by MAF’s successor, the Ministry for Primary Industries.<\/p>\n

Bolton Equities, which is owned by businessman Murray Bolton, bought Zion Wildlife Gardens in 2014 and reopened it as Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary in 2021.<\/p>\n

The park went into liquidation in 2023 but reopened for public visits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of four lions who faced being put down at a Whang\u0101rei animal park has died in her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-610285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}