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Description
My tribute to Kivú, the last lion from Costa Rica and also one with a pretty tragic life. Kivú and his sister Kariba were a gift from a cuban circus to the Simon Bolivar Zoological and Botanical Garden in 1998. He had a pretty depresing lifestyle since he lived in a small concrete enclousure with metal bars and was fed 8 kilograms of meat per week through most of his life. In fact, it's thought that due to that lifestyle his sister Kariba died of depression. Of course all this triggered animal activists to no end so they battled their asses off so the goverment could build him a bigger cage until on last year's February it decided to confiscate Kivú from the zoo and transport it to ZooAve, an animal rescue sanctuary where they made him a spacious enclousure with actual greenery separate from the public until he passed away of a renal malfunction and old age. His body was cremated, his ashes were buried under a tree and ZooAve even built a bronxe statue on his honour.

Kivú was an icon to many costaricans and he will always have a special place in their hearts.

Description
My tribute to Kivú, the last lion from Costa Rica and also one with a pretty tragic life. Kivú and his sister Kariba were a gift from a cuban circus to the Simon Bolivar Zoological and Botanical Garden in 1998. He had a pretty depresing lifestyle since he lived in a small concrete enclousure with metal bars and was fed 8 kilograms of meat per week through most of his life. In fact, it's thought that due to that lifestyle his sister Kariba died of depression. Of course all this triggered animal activists to no end so they battled their asses off so the goverment could build him a bigger cage until on last year's February it decided to confiscate Kivú from the zoo and transport it to ZooAve, an animal rescue sanctuary where they made him a spacious enclousure with actual greenery separate from the public until he passed away of a renal malfunction and old age. His body was cremated, his ashes were buried under a tree and ZooAve even built a bronxe statue on his honour.

Kivú was an icon to many costaricans and he will always have a special place in their hearts.