FACTS ABOUT SHAMBALA'S ANIMALS

Male tigers eat between 15 and 20 pounds of food a day. Females eat between 10 and 15 pounds.

Elephants eat 500 pounds of food a day.

Together, the animals at Shambala eat 700 pounds of meat and 1,000 pounds of vegetables, grain and hay a day.

Elephants live to be 60-65 years old, lions live to be 20-25 years old, tigers to about 17 and cougars to about 15 years old. Cheetahs have the shortest life expectancy of the animals on the preserve _ 8-10 years.

Elephants have 84,000 muscles in their trunks.

Elephants sunburn and like to have their tongues rubbed.

GET INVOLVED

If you are interested in becoming involved with an animal preserve or if you and your classroom, youth group or club would like to donate money to support a wild animal, you can contact the ROAR Foundation, 6867 Soledad Canyon Road, Acton, Calif. 93510.

Tippi Hedren's wildlife preserve grew from her movie-making experiences, first in Africa and later in California.

In 1963, actress Tippi Hedren starred in The Birds, a popular Alfred Hitchcock movie about wildlife run amok. The experience did not sour her on animals, however; a few years later, she started a preserve to protect animals.

Hedren, who founded and runs Shambala Wildlife Preserve in Acton, Calif., currently keeps 76 animals, including lions, cougars, elephants and tigers.

"This is a very beautiful gift that we have with the animals in the wild," Hedren told a Children's Express editor who visited the preserve, located about 30 miles north of Los Angeles near the San Gabriel Mountains.

"I truly believe that if we do not take care of the animals, we're not going to take very good care of the humans on this planet."

A happy "accident"

Shambala was not created intentionally; the idea was born in 1969 when Hedren and her then-husband, Noel Marshall, were in Africa shooting Satan's Harvest, a film about animals. They were so charmed by the big cats that they decided to make their own film about them in California.

For the film, they gathered dozens of wild animals onto their estate, eventually acquiring so many that they had to buy a 180-acre spread to keep them all.

Hedren and Marshall ran into many obstacles as they made their movie, Roar, which they began filming in 1969 but didn't finish until 1979. Besides surviving numerous animal attacks, the crew had to repair the preserve in 1978, when it was damaged by floods, and again in 1979, when it was damaged by fire.

By the time filming was complete, Hedren and Marshall had grown so close to the animals that they couldn't bear to part with them, and they named the preserve Shambala. Shambala is a Sanskrit word, meaning "meeting place of peace and harmony for all beings, animals and human."

"It never occurred to any of us to let them go," the actress-turned-preservationist says. "I don't think that there's anyplace that they could go to that could equal this."

Hedren disapproves of animals for circuses and other commercial purposes. "I think that their lives are absolutely miserable. Circuses can do very well without the use of animals." As an example, she cites the Cirque du Soleil, the French circus that relies strictly on human feats.

Compounds, not cages

"When (animals) are in the circus, they have a very grave way of life. They are never out of a cage unless they're in the ring. They're in tiny cages that can be moved, and that's their life."

Shambala's forests and grassy plains are a far cry from cramped animal cages. The animals live in compounds as much like their natural habitats as possible. The preserve has an exotic beauty, with its ponds filled with Japanese fish and its bright, colorful flowers. It is far enough from the city that the only sound one hears is lions roaring.

Shambala's peace and beauty did not come cheaply; millions of dollars have been poured into the project, financed largely by Hedren and Marshall and proceeds from Roar. "Without doing the movie, we could never have done this because of the cost," she says. "The rewards that we receive from working with these animals here are not financial at all."

The preserve relies completely on donations, including her own, and Hedren adds, "We're always in the red, always." The main source of income is the "safari," a four-hour up-close experience with the animals. Two days a month, Shambala is open to the public, for $35 a person.

Lovers of animals also can donate money to support all of them or specific ones.

Hedren maintains that animals are much more intelligent and civilized than most people believe. A roaring lion is usually perceived as vicious, but she says, "When the lions roar, it's because they're lonely, and they're calling their mates. It's a very plaintive sound, very soulful and lonely."

Quite a bit like people

Bill Dow, a photographer who has worked with Hedren at Shambala, agrees that animals are more like humans than they are given credit for. "They get into arguments _ just like people do. Sometimes their arguments get real physical, just like people. Each one of these animals has a different personality, just like people are different," Dow says.

"It's funny. People think that lions are . . . vicious, but they've got a reason for doing everything that they do. Vicious implies that they're doing something mean, but these cats aren't like that."

Hedren and Dow have seen the animals display other human characteristics, such as affection.

Hedren mentions the love between Timbo and Kura, her two elephants, when they first met. "Timbo was so happy to see her when she got off her van and walked down a ramp, they touched trunks and then he took her out into this field out there and there was an enormous rumbling sound that they make when they're happy _ it sounds like distant thunder.

"In the middle of the field out there, he stopped and they entwined trunks, and it almost looked like a choreographed dance. Then he took his trunk and smoothed it over her face and down her ears and back. It was very romantic and beautiful."

Timbo has another common human quality _ a penchant for drinking beer. He can drink an entire can in a matter of seconds, Hedren says.

Both elephants love fruits and vegetables, and Hedren brings them treats such as watermelons, pineapples and bushels of apples. "One day I met them up at the barn," she recalls. "I didn't know they were coming home early, and I didn't have anything except a package of Clorets. So I called Timbo, and he opened his mouth and I (tapped out) a couple of them and put them on his tongue.

His favorite treat

"All of a sudden, within three seconds, Timbo's eyelashes started to flutter. He bowed his trunk, and his great cheeks were sucking Clorets.

"Now it's gotten to the point if I don't have my Clorets with me, he'll go through my pockets and into my purse, and he picks up my hand. He knows I've got them in my hand. He picks it up and puts it in his mouth so I can drop the Clorets in."

One of Hedren's lions lives with a medium-sized dog, which she says is the dominant animal. "That's the only way the whole thing could work, because otherwise, she'd end up his dinner. But they love each other. In fact, that lion can't stand it when the dog goes for a run around the preserve. He gets so lonesome. He worries about it . . . it's so sweet."

"I think God gave us every living being on this earth to save and to take care of and to respect. And respect is one of the most important ideals that we can have, not only for the animals, but for other humans. We've lost a great deal of respect for each other, and that's very sad."