Posts tagged "lion"

We've warned you about this type of thing before. We love, love, love the big cats, but they are for appreciating and admiring, not for touching, hugging, or generally palling around with. That's because they are nature's perfect killing machines (sorry, snakes) and should not be trifled with except by experts.

And yet we love this video. So much about it is wrong: cats and dogs together, domesticated animals with wild beasts, two against one. But friendship is friendship. Friendship is pure. Those lions are juveniles still, after all. It's like that glorious first half of "The Fox and the Hound" when Todd and Copper simply don't yet know that they're supposed to be enemies.

This dog "was raised with the lions at the compound and is best friends with these lions," insists the videographer. Can it last?

No one's born fierce. Even the most ferocious, intimidating animal in the kingdom was once an adorable puffball. Take this lion cub, for example. Man, it really wants you to be frightened of it. But we're sorry, little one; you're just not scary yet. Every time you try to roar and that little squeak comes out, we just want to hold you and snuggle you and tickle your furry little belly. Don't give up, though. You'll get there.

That feline lightsaber duel from earlier really got me in the mood to see more cats playing with lasers, so here's another great video from Big Cat Rescue. The last time we checked in with BCR, they showed us how the big cats (ie. tigers, lions, leopards and jaguars) are really just like the domesticated cats we have at home. A tiger doesn't look so scary when he's chasing around a giant plastic ball. (Except they really can rip your throat out or eat you alive, so don't get cocky around one.) What other toys that our cats love work just as well on big cats? If you said "laser pointers," you are right! But it's not like you're some kind of genius. It says it right there in the title. Seriously, you are being really cocky today! Settle down.

Big cats. Lions, tigers, jaguars and leopards. The kings of the jungle and whatnot. Think about one. What do you see? Probably something pretty majestic. The magnificent beast sits regally upon some rock or something, the master of all he surveys. He is relaxed, but could strike at any moment. He is fierce and proud. If he could speak, his voice would probably be deep and resonant and demanding of your attention and respect. Like Dennis Haysbert's.

Or maybe your imagination conjures a lion on the hunt. Tearing across the plains in pursuit of some antelope, he snarls, bearing his fangs and his shiny claws. He takes down his prey in a flurry of blood and dust, standing over the kill and roaring his triumph as his pride draws near to feast.

Or alternatively, perhaps the cat you see in your mind is rolling around with a giant plastic doughnut like a big doofus, scuttling the image of the noble beast that those other cats we talked about work so hard to create.

You might remember that a couple of weeks ago, we ran a retrospective on sleeping cats, which required little justification given how self-evidently cute sleeping cats are. But we do feel the need to reiterate that a large part of what makes things cute is size, i.e. small equals cute. This is why our retrospective mainly featured kittens and small cats.

Now, far be it from us to suggest that Shanta the lioness here isn't cute. We would never say that, mainly because we don't want to risk offending her and catching a clawed pat to the face or a fanged maw to the jugular. But then, that's just it. If cute and terrifying can coexist, than that's what's happening right here. Because as cuddly as a sleepy lion looks strictly upon surface-level observation, our basic knowledge of the animal kingdom lets us know we wouldn't want to wake up from a nap with the queen of the jungle snoozing on top of us. Even if she licked our faces to let us know everything is copacetic, we wouldn't risk hugging her back. There are rules about these things.

Remember when Harper wouldn't stop singing at that zoo lion, so it ambled over and made one "shut up, kid" jump up at the class enclosure, and the kid got so frightened he immediately started crying? Baby Trent here is not so easily startled. In fact, Trent is so completely unfazed by the lioness that is desperately trying to eat him, he's either the most strong-willed baby who's ever lived, or the most oblivious. I know he's young, but there must be some primal part of him screaming "Danger! Danger!" to his central nervous system, right? For the first moments of this video, we tried to convince ourselves that maybe, maybe the lion was just playing with Trent, like that Sea World otter. But then at about the 0:55 mark, it becomes abundantly clear that the lion is definitely trying to bite off the baby's head! And then what happens? This baby, this 1-year-old child, he stares into the black, hungry maw of death... and he giggles.

There's a visceral reaction you might experience during the early moments of this video. Something primal, something instinctual. You're on the African plains, naked, in your hand a crude spear carved from a tree branch. You've been separated from your tribe and you know you're no match for a hungry lioness on your own. Fight is not an option, only flight. Your reptilian brain is firing only one message to every nerve and muscle in your body: Run.

But the rational part of your brain reminds you that it's just a YouTube video. You're safe at home and no lioness is actually approaching. Your cold sweat dries. Your legs stop shaking. And as the terrible beast's muzzle closes in on the camera lens, you're reminded of something else. You're reminded of all those mornings you wake up with your cat sitting on your chest, licking your face or just staring at you expectantly. And all of a sudden the lioness actually seems kind of cute! But don't let that fool you completely. There's still no wuzzling!

At the Seaview Lion Park on the Eastern Cape of South Africa, it looks like two lions, Noam and Tom, sure like to cuddle with their zookeeper. In fact, it's nothing but one big lovefest here, as the two lions lure us into thinking that lions would be great housecats.

I mean, come on, how could you not want to hug those giant, furry necks and be embraced by those precious paws? It's definitely a good reason to bring a lion into the house, right? Right?

Alright, whatever. Fine. We know it's a bad idea. We'll just keep browsing their YouTube channel.

"Pamper yourself," he told me. "Take a day at the spa. Get a massage. Have a facial. Get your fur and claws done. Enjoy yourself -- you deserve it!" he said.

Nobody mentioned the mandatory mud bath involved at Le Spa Daily Squee, however. And I do not. like. getting. dirty. Do I look relaxed? Do I look happy? For our next anniversary, I'd better get some serious jewelry. Or at least those juicy gazelle treats I've had my eye on.

When your day isn't going quite as planned, sometimes all you need is a change of perspective. Take this big guy, for example. He stayed up too late last night, probably watching the Golden Globes, and was off his game on today's hunt. But it's not all bad. This lion got his giggle fix over at Daily Squee, and now he's taking a few minutes to relax and check out the cool cloud shapes overhead. Sometimes you just have to take some time for yourself!

The Myrtle Beach Safari wildlife reserve in South Carolina recently announced the birth of a baby liger, the cross between a male lion and a tigress. The adorable 4-week-old Aries is pictured here peeking out from behind his 8-year-old big brother, Hercules. Aries may look small now, but he is expected to gain almost one pound a day, which will most likely put him at 365 pounds by his first birthday, Dr. Bhagavan Antle, director of The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (T.I.G.E.R.S.), told the (U.K.) Daily Mail.

Aries's older brother weighs in at a whopping 900 pounds, and stands almost 6 feet tall. Talk about a big kitty!

The coupling of a lion and a tiger is uncommon, especially in the wild. Lions are found mostly in Africa, while tigers live in Asia, and both species are extremely territorial. However, Aries and Hercules are a byproduct of T.I.G.E.R.S., which was established to provide funding to international wildlife conservation programs, along with education and field research, according to its website.

While ligers are bigger than both lions and tigers, they also have lighter stripes than tigers and a characteristic heart-shaped head without much of a mane like a lion would have. Hercules's head -- and soon Aries, who they expect to be as large if not larger than his older brother -- is 2 feet and 3 inches across, and his 2-inch claws are the same size as a velociraptor dinosaur, according to the Daily Mail.

Ligers are distinct from tigons, the hybrid of a tiger father and lioness mother. There are even litigons, the hybrid of a male lion and a female tigon.

Or favorite quotes from the video of a lion "interacting" with visitors:

1) Mom's nervous, understanding "ohhhh my..." when the lion rises to its feet.

2) Parents trying to spin for the kids the whole terrifying event of the lion jumping up at the glass, "He likes you! He was trying to give you a kiss!" (Maybe in some alternate universe in which "to kiss" means "to swallow whole.")

3) The child not buying it and saying, "I think he wanted to eat us!"




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One of the most memorable friendships from Disney's "The Lion King" is now being acted out at a game park near Sun City, South Africa.

Zinzi, the tiny lioness, was brought into Predator World Zoo and Game Farm at just a day old; her mother refused to feed her, according to the (U.K.) Telegraph. Marcell Tournier, owner of Predator World, took the little cub in, much to the delight of Bob, a 2-year-old meerkat who, Tournier told Telegraph, "likes having anything cuddly and cute around." Sounds like Bob is our kind of people. Erm, meerkat.

The pair barely leave each other's sides. We can just picture them frolicking in the fields until, exhausted, they hunker down for the world's cutest nap, as evidenced above. Now what do we need to do to bring a friendly, if slightly gassy, warthog into the mix?

Does it get any cuter than a picture of furry babies from different species showing each other some love? Actually, it does. The story of how this trio of unlikely pals came together -- living at South Africa's Pumba Private Game Reserve Rehabilitation Center -- will warm your heart.

The lion cub, Sheba, was the first of the three animals to arrive at Pumba. Her mother had birthed a litter of three, but two of the newborns died, and the lioness abandoned her only surviving cub, Sheba. A call went out to the Pumba reserve, asking if they would bring Sheba into their Rehabilitation Center. Pumba's Dale Howarth wrote on the reserve's blog that they took her on the condition that the facility would adopt and rehabilitate her over 18 months with the ultimate goal of releasing her back into the wild.

Two days after Sheba came to Pumba, the reserve received a call to help another cat species. This time, two caracals (who are also referred to as desert lynx) were orphaned when a pack of hunting dogs killed their mother. The huntsman knew about Pumba's Rehabilitation Center and called to see if the reserve could help.

"This opportunity seemed to be so coincidental with getting the lioness a few days earlier, that we immediately accepted as now we would have company for the lioness and each other as they grow up," Howarth wrote. They named the caracal cubs Jack and Jill.

All three are survivors. Sheba turned 5 weeks old on April 1. She has quadrupled her weight, is walking and has opened her eyes. The caracal kittens Jack and Jill are thriving right alongside her.

Last month, stepbrothers Shere Khan, Leo and Baloo moved into a new home together. Nothing unusual there, except that Shere Khan is a tiger, Leo a lion, and Baloo an American black bear. Oh my!

Police discovered the threesome in the back of a car during a drug bust in Atlanta in 2001. The animals, then just fuzzy cubs around two months old, were apparently being kept as pets by drug kingpins. After their rescue, they were sent to Noah's Ark Animal Rehabilition Center, an animal refuge in Locust Grove, Georgia, Noah's Ark's assistant director Diane Smith told Paw Nation.

"They got along so well as babies, they decided to keep them together," Smith told Paw Nation. Eight years on, the unlikely trio remains inseparable, eating, sleeping and romping together around their new enclosure. "I guess no one's ever told them they're different species," Smith said.

Shere Khan and Baloo are particularly close, she said, and the 350-pound tiger can often be seen nuzzling the half-ton bear like an overgrown housecat. Shere Khan and Baloo often get up early to play while Leo, a typical lion, spends most of the day sleeping. Once Leo finally rolls out of bed, the three spend the afternoons together.

The animals are still adjusting to their new enclosure, where, for the first time, they are on display to the visiting public. It has taken Shere Khan a while to get used to the new space, Smith said, but he's coming around -- especially with his buddies Leo and Baloo around for support. The new digs includes a sturdy wooden clubhouse where all three animals sleep together.

Noah's Ark staff hope to eventually expand the habitat to include a creek that runs behind their current enclosure. (Baloo and Shere Khan particularly like to splash around in the water.)

"They really do enjoy each other's company," Smith added. "They interact just like brothers."

To feast your eyes on more Shere Khan-Leo-Baloo adorableness -- including painfully cute baby pictures -- visit their Facebook fan page.