DUBAI: No your eyes are not deceiving you, that really is a man in a river – oh yes and there is a lioness seemingly about to pounce on him.
But what looks like an attack by the big cat, turns into something quite astounding.
The man in the river is South African conservationist Kevin Richardson, otherwise known as the “Lion Whisperer,” and the lioness, who seems to be about to launch a predatory attack just wants a cuddle.
Richardson rescued the lioness at birth, along with her sibling when they were both rejected by their mother.
In a separate video Richardson explained: “When I call Meg (the lioness) and she comes swimming and I see in her face, ‘if I come to you are you going to catch me?’
“She looks at me, I look at her and we know. That’s trust,” he added.
He said he relocated the cats in a wildlife park with other animals, which he said he believes ultimately saved them from ending up somehow as part of the lion hunting market
“Definitely, in my mind, they were destined for a bullet,” he said.
His video, called ‘For the Love of Lions’ is dedicated to Cecil the Lion, the 13-year-old male that was killed by an American big game hunter in 2015.
