A wildlife park has revealed it may have no option but to euthanise its last seven remaining lions. The announcement was made this week, with New Zealand's Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary confirming it was now officially closed.

In a statement published on Tuesday, the facility’s operator, Janette Vallance, said the “difficult decision” had been made by the property’s owner Bolton Equities.

“There were no real options left. Staff and I are devastated,” she said.

The announcement prompted a public outcry. “So sad for you all,” one person said online. “These beautiful big cats. So heartbreaking for all involved,” another added.

The lions were all scheduled to be euthanised this week. Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary confirmed with Yahoo News that two with known health and welfare issues had been euthanised on Wednesday.

But it said there is a glimmer of hope for the other remaining big cats. "There has been some interest from new potential buyers," it said, noting this "could mean the cats remain".

"None of us, including Bolton Equities, want to euthanise them," the sanctuary added.

Shock as sanctuary listed for sale

The 32.5-hectare Whangārei property has been listed for sale as a “unique opportunity” in a “popular lifestyle location”.

But the sudden announcement to euthanise the lions has shocked many Kiwis. “This seems absolutely ridiculous that there [were] no other options — a total cop out,” one person responded. “Horrible news. You should have given the community more warning and a chance to say goodbye,” another said.

Call for government to step in and save big cats

Aged between 18 and 21, the lions are elderly by big cat standards. Welfare advocates have called on the government to step in and find a solution so the animals can live out their twilight years at the park.

International advocacy group World Animal Protection said it wants authorities to “halt plans” to euthanise the lions, and investigate all non-lethal options. “That should include stepping in and taking over the running of the park, and allowing the lions to live out their lives in their home,” spokesperson Ben Pearson told Yahoo News.

Responding to a request for comment, the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) told Yahoo News the future of the lions rests with Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary.

“That decision rests with the owners of the cats,” Stuart Anderson, the deputy director of Biosecurity New Zealand, which sits within MPI, said in an email.

“Euthanasia needs to be carried out humanely in line with the Animal Welfare Act. MPI will have an animal welfare inspector on-site to verify this is done appropriately.”

Millions invested in lion sanctuary

Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary has a colourful history. The privately owned zoo was established in 2002 as Zion Wildlife Gardens and was the filming location for a popular television show, The Lion Man, which featured its founder.

In 2008, the park was subject to an animal welfare investigation by MPI. A year later, a keeper was mauled to death, and the white tiger that attacked him was shot dead, but an inquest cleared the zoo of any wrongdoing in that case.

After facing a string of financial and compliance issues in the 2010s, it was ultimately acquired by Bolton Equities, which invested NZ$12 million into the property. While it was previously a commercial business, under its new ownership, the park said its intention was not to make a profit, but simply to cover costs.

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Pearson said the saga should prompt a rethink of breeding wild animals at for-profit zoos.

“This is a dreadful situation where once again, wild animals who have lived their lives in captivity are now facing the prospect of having those lives cut short through no fault of their own,” he said.

Bolton Equities has been contacted for further comment.

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A New Zealand zoo has confirmed that its plan to euthanise five lions has been put on hold, after the uncertain future of the iconic big cats at the Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary sparked intense interest across the country.

Laurie Margrain, a director of Bolton Equities, which owns the sanctuary, told Yahoo News that “The publicity… did solicit a little bit of interest from other parties who expressed an interest in potentially buying the park and maintaining the last five animals.”

“We cancelled the euthanasia this morning in order to do the right thing and run those inquiries to the ground, and see if there was anything concrete in them.”

When Bolton Equities bought the sanctuary in 2014, it was home to more than 30 big cats, but according to Laurie, the zoo has “never really turned a dollar, it doesn’t even remotely wash its face financially.”

He said we've always “had an interest in ensuring the cats could live their lives out… Animal welfare, public and staff safety, have been the driving force for all the years we’ve owned it.”

Video transcript

A New Zealand zoo has confirmed that its plan to euthanize 5 lions has been put on hold after the uncertain future of the iconic big cats at the Kamo Wildlife Sanctuary sparked intense interest across the country.

Laurie Margrain, a director of Bolton Equities, which owns the sanctuary, told Yahoo News that the publicity did solicit a little bit of interest from other parties who expressed an interest in potentially buying the park and maintaining the last 5 animals.

We cancelled the euthanasia.

Morning in order to do the right thing and run those inquiries to the ground and see if there was anything concrete in them.

When Bolton Equities bought the sanctuary in 2014, it was home to more than 30 big cats, but according to Laurie, the zoo has never really turned a dollar.

It doesn't even remotely wash its face financially.

He said that we've always had an interest in ensuring the cats could live their lives out.

Animal welfare, public and staff safety have been the driving force for all the years we've owned it.

A rare and poorly understood species of algae is the main culprit behind South Australia’s rolling toxic algal bloom crisis, scientists have discovered.

In a pre-print paper published this week, multiple scientists conclude that a novel brevetoxin producer called Karenia cristata is the algae species underpinning the bloom that has killed thousands of marine wildlife and devastated the state’s seafood industries.

“Using custom metabarcoding, long-read sequencing and targeted quantitative PCR, we characterised the microalgal assemblage Karenia cristata dominated over the sampling area, in an assemblage with four other Karenia species with varied abundances spatially and temporally,” the paper’s abstract reads.

Harmful algal bloom expert Professor Shauna Murray from UTS Sydney was one of the authors of the paper and told NewsWire on Thursday she and her colleagues had started testing samples taken from South Australia in March.

“It is a mixed bloom, involving five different Karenina species,” she said.

“The one that is producing the brevetoxin is a species called Karenia cristata.”

She warned the scientific community was largely in the dark about the species.

“We know very little about it,” she said.

“It’s literally been reported twice in the world before.”

The species was responsible for a bloom in South Africa in the 1990s, she said, and it was also been identified on a small island in Newfoundland in Canada.

“That’s the sum total of what we know,” she said.

She said researchers would now try to understand how the species grows and develops.

“Then maybe we can understand what caused the bloom,” she said.

South Australia’s bloom was first detected in March and over the past eight months it has spread to cover 20,000 sqkm, or about 30 per cent of the state’s coastline.

It has thrown state’s lucrative fisheries and coastal tourism industries into disarray, with growing fears of widespread job losses.

Button Fisheries owner Bart Butson, speaking at a senate inquiry into the bloom in Ardrossan in mid September, said he hadn’t seen any calamari or squid in the St Vincent Gulf for the previous 2½ months.

“That is just incredible for us. It shouldn’t happen,” he said.

Port Lincoln Mayor Diana Mislov, appearing that same week, said fishermen in the iconic “seafood capital of Australia” were struggling to catch fish in the Spencer Gulf.

“We’re feeling it on our bays – the fish just aren’t biting, they are not there,” she said.

“I’ve had stories – a fisherman fishes for squid, he hasn’t seen squid since April in our bays.

“So those fishermen are having to drive to the west coast, take their boats over there – 600km away – and go fishing from those locations.”

Ian Mitchell, the manager of Safcol’s Adelaide Fish Market, told the inquiry the next 12-24 months could deliver dramatic lay-offs across the embattled industry.

“The next 12-24 is the most important because if we keep going on a downward trend, then my staff will probably leave because I won’t be able to give them the hours and to find staff in this industry is a hard thing to do,” he said.

There are some 50,000 species of algae, and only about 200 of those are considered harmful.

Harmful algae produce toxins that can kill and contaminate marine life.

In October, the state and federal government announced a $102.5m “summer plan” to support coastal communities impacted by the event.

The plan includes a mix of packages to stimulate travel demand, prop up businesses that have been smashed by the toxic bloom and expand research and restoration efforts.

Some $48m will go to travel vouchers, grants for small businesses and fee relief for fisheries and aquaculture licence holders

There is also a $15m dining cashback program to help cover meals at eligible establishments located along the coast.

The program, available to South Australians, will allocate 60,000 $50 vouchers through a public ballot each month from November.

The plan also allocates $20.6m for the restoration of large-scale native oyster reefs, community shellfish reefs, seagrass and blue carbon and to launch a targeted breeding, conservation and fish stocking program for vulnerable and threatened species hit by the bloom.

A further $17.3m will go to a range of research initiatives, including a new $3.2m South Australian-based office for algal bloom research.

Against all odds, one of Australia’s smallest marsupials has returned to southwest NSW, more than 150 years after it was wiped out from the region. Few people alive have witnessed western barred bandicoots in the wild, because the once-widespread species likely became extinct on the mainland around 1929.

Incredible footage from the non-profit group Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) captures two of the 20 endangered animals nervously touching their foot on the ground to reclaim their homeland. The tiny creature needs a little encouragement from a handler before it scurries away across the scrubland.

The introduction of foxes and cats by European settlers rapidly wiped out the species from its semi-arid range on mainland Australia. Today, it’s also known as the Shark Bay bandicoot, because remnant populations survived on nearby Dirk Hartog and Faure islands, the westernmost point of Australia.

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Releasing them back into the wild in southwest NSW was only possible inside the Mallee Cliffs National Park in the state’s southwest, because it contains the mainland’s largest fenced-off feral-predator free sanctuary.

This year, other rare animals like the long-footed potoroo and Leadbeater’s possum have been rediscovered in areas of NSW where they were believed to be extinct. But it's almost certain there are no naturally occurring western barred bandicoots left in the state.

Nine locally extinct species restored to former habitat

The Mallee Cliffs release occurred last week through a partnership between AWC and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. There are now seven mainland populations of the species, in Western Australia, South Australia and NSW.

“It’s like an Aussie comeback story with a whole lot of heart,” AWC ecologist Dr Rachel Ladd said

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Western barred bandicoots are the ninth species restored to Mallee Cliffs by AWC and NPWS. The others are the greater bilby, greater stick-nest rat, numbat, brush-tailed bettong, red-tailed phascogale, Mitchell’s hopping mouse, burrowing bettong, and the bridled nailtail wallaby.

“We’re one species away from reaching a significant wildlife conservation milestone here in south west NSW,” Ladd said.

“The last species planned for reintroduction to Mallee Cliffs under the first phase of the project is the top-order mammalian carnivore, the western quoll.”

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