Lion Habitat is true to MGM Grand's heritage
Just in case life has been too tame for you lately, you can get your lion’s share of excitement at the MGM Grand — where the Lion Habitat offers a rip-roaring good time right in the middle of the casino.
Located next to Studio 54 in the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino, the Lion Habitat showcases up to six African lions daily for public education and appreciation. A roaring lion has been the logo for MGM since it was still Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1924.
The venue is a true surround-sound-and-sight experience. There are lions up, down and all around as they romp throughout the three-story, glass-enclosed structure. Encased with skylights, the habitat has walls reaching heights of 35 fee and let guests watch the animals’ every move.
Visitors can be encircled by lions via a see-through walkway tunnel that runs through the Lion Habitat as the cats prowl above and below. A lion can walk over your head in full view. Not to worry: The bulletproof safety glass, an inch-and-a-half thick, can takes the weight of an adult lion running at 25 miles per hour!
Keith Evans, a trainer of exotic felines for more than 30 years, owns the lions. He and his wife, Beverly, have raised all from births. He cares for the cats at his eight-acre Las Vegas home, affectionately called “The Cat House,” transporting them from his property to the hotel, 12 miles away, two or three times a day. Comfortable in front of a camera, the cats are very much at home with the public.
Between one and five lions prowl in the habitat at any given time — never any longer than six hours. The females are not spayed, so they're kept apart from the males. Since males fight, unless they're brothers, there's usually only one male in the habitat at a time.
Evans hopes to educate the public on the needs and requirements of lions in the wild. He wants to change the public's misconceptions that lions are predators fit to shoot for trophies.
MGM Grand has an alliance with the University of Minnesota Lion Research Center and its reknowned director, Dr. Craig Packer. The hotel has formed a working partnership with the Lion Research Center, which committed $100,000 in grants to help fund Dr. Packer’s lion preservation programs in Africa.
- by Bobbie Katz, Las Vegas Reporter for HelloMetro
(Click to leave a message)
