lion attack

ZA highlight: WE GOT TO PET LIONS!!!!! How cool is that? Lions! I still cannot believe it happened. It was one of the coolest things we’ve done since arriving in South Africa.

This adventure took place at the Lion Park in Joburg. It is a drive-through park that is home to many African animals including lions (obvi!), cheetahs, wild dogs, leopards, giraffes, zebras, various antelopes, meer cats and many more. It is a tourist trap, but is surprisingly really cool and I highly recommend it if you are in Joburg. As an animal lover, I do feel sad for them because cars and people bother them all day, but they seem to be well cared for. Some of them are even a little chubby, probably from lack of exercise, but they are definitely well fed.

Speaking of well fed, we went on a Sunday and happened to see a lion feeding. The lions knew when feeding time was and they waited anxiously at the gate to greet the food truck. The truck drove around in a large circle and a man threw out large cuts of raw beef, about 8 meters apart, to avoid lion fights.

 This guy walked right by my window!!!! 

The lion below is a young male. Can you see his mane starting to fill in?

After we drove through the 4 pens of lions, we came to the cheetahs. Cheetahs are very sleek, elegant creatures and were much larger than I expected. We also got to see 3 adorable cheetah cubs that melted my heart.

We also got to see one of the most extraordinary animals in the Big 5 - the leopard. It was hanging in a tree! No wonder people rarely see them on safari.

At the end of the drive, we reached Cub World and got to play with these two lion cubs for about 15 minutes. You aren’t allowed to touch their heads or pick them up because they will bite (more on this in a minute) so we stuck to their backs. We were told that the cubs were orphans and between 3 and 4 months old. So, basically, they could eat us for dinner 4 months from now. Yikes!

We expected their fur to be soft because they were young, but it was quite the opposite…coarse and wiry. I went a little crazy with the cub photos, but they were so stinking cute that I could not resist. I have a lot more, but here are some of my favorites.

Here are some of us petting the LIONS!!!!!

What is even cooler than petting a lion? Surviving a lion attack! The small cub with the spots bit us both, but it only left a mark on Mat. I guess he sensed that Matty was a male and wanted to show him who was boss. Ha! The photo below on the left was immediately before the attack.

After being attacked by the lion, we headed to the gift shop to see what they had. What do you think?! Just kidding, we didn’t buy either of these things, but they made for funny photos J

I will leave you with two photos that I love. What if this was your job?! You know both of these animals are thinking, "Dude, I will %&*@ you up if you come any closer to me!"