Ant’s Story: Lions, Leopards, Cheetahs—OH MY! Rescuing Wildlife and Inspiring Coexistence

Ant’s Story: Lions, Leopards, Cheetahs—OH MY! Rescuing Wildlife and Inspiring Coexistence

In Anthony Peniston’s own words, he is NOT a wildlife whisperer, just a regular guy who wants to protect wildlife. Yes, just a regular guy — who has dedicated his life to rescuing and often risking his life for animals most people fear… lions, cheetahs, leopards, and wolves, to name a few. Lexie and Ava spent two highly intense, eye-opening months at Ant’s lion rescue and rehabilitation reserve in All Days, South Africa. The stories they heard and experienced were too wild (cue pun ping) and enlightening to not share on Good Stories. Ant is the epitome of a person who sows goodness in his community, from opening his own school when his daughter was criticized for being mixed race, rehabilitating lions from the brink of starvation, living with cheetahs in the bush, and finding ways humans and wildlife, and humans with vastly different cultures and views, can coexist.

STORY BITES:

The Sisters’ Debrief (0:17)

The sisters set the scene with stories of close calls when feeding the lions, life on the reserve, and the darkest day of seeing one of the lions die.

The Main Event: Ant Peniston (21:24 — End)

Origin Story: How reading wildlife books helped his battle with dyslexia

Living with Cheetahs: training cheetahs he rescued to be self-sufficient in the bush

Wildlife-Human Conflict: Working with a divided community toward coexistence

Mixed-Race Couple: Why Emma and Ant built a school for their kids

Vision Africa’s future plans… Netflix series? Step aside Tiger King

A Toast to Hopeless Optimists: don’t let the big problem stop you from solving the small one

Ready for your epic wildlife experience? Book you adventure

Follow Ant’s journey here

Do you or some you know have a good story to share on the show? Contact us at goodstories@sowginc.com!

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