Zion Wildlife Gardens
Busch said he aimed to breed big cats to increase their numbers but these cats were not endangered species and were not linked to any recognised international breeding programmes.
In 2005, Busch arranged the exchange of New Zealand's first natively-born white tigers Tane and Aotea (born January 2005), and later Kiwi and Rongo (Born October 2, 2005) with a white lion cub named Gandor from the Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve near Johannesburg.
Busch featured in reality series The Lion Man, which became one of New Zealand's biggest selling television series internationally. The series is shown in more than 130 different countries.
In 2007, Busch was convicted in the Whangarei District Court of assaulting his former partner in 2005. He had had a previous New Zealand conviction of assault in 1991.
In November 2008, Busch was dismissed from Zion Wildlife Park. In the years that followed Busch and his mother Patricia battled in court over ownership of the park and its assets.
On 31 January 2012 Zion Wildlife Gardens was sold by receivers PricewaterhouseCoopers to Zion Wildlife Kingdom Limited. Busch also returned as a self-employed contractor fulfilling a specialist animal handler role at the facility. In April 2012 the park reopened under the name Kingdom of Zion.
Read more about this topic: Craig Busch
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