Two Men Develop Friendship With Rescued Lioness (Video)

Two men have developed an unbreakable bond with a lioness they rescued after she was abandoned by her pride (video below).

According to the Daily Mail, Sirga was found nearly dead on a farm in 2012. She was one of three cubs born to a pride of lions. The other two cubs did survive and Sirga was abandoned.

Sirga was rescued by conservationist Valentin Gruener, 27, who co-founded the Modisa Wildlife Project in Kalahari, Botswana, with Mikkel Legarth.

Gruener became Sirga’s surrogate parent after she was rescued. He worked with a vet to feed Sirga, who weighed just 4 pounds and was suffering from severe dehydration at the time.

The lioness was fed a number of different recipes, until Gruener came up with a mixture of eggs, cream, milk, vitamins, sunflower oil, and calcium, to help her gain weight.

“To this day we believe she is probably the most spoiled and well-fed lion in Botswana,” he told the Daily Mail.

After just a year, Sirga had put on 175 pounds and had moved onto eating raw meat.

Gruener and Legarth hope to eventually return Sirga to the wild, but still have some work to do, including teaching her how to hunt, a skill cubs typically learn from the adult lions in their pride.

“We didn’t want Sirga to become like other lions in captivity, constantly fed by streams of tourists,” Legarth said. “She hunts her own food, taking antelopes, and she will let us be near her when she eats it, which is remarkable.”

He continued, “We want to release eventually as a wild lion, not as one who has met lots of people. That would be dangerous. She only interacts with me and Valentin.”

Footage of Gruener and Legarth interacting with Sirga was shared on YouTube by Caters TV. The video has been seen nearly 2 million times in less than three years.

The video shows the two men walking down a dirt road in Botswana, when Sirga runs toward them and jumps on them before they sit on the ground and let her climb into their laps.

Viewers were stunned to see how the lioness interacts with her human “parents” in the video. They shared their thoughts in the comments section of the YouTube video.

“If this cat is going to sit on your keyboard you are going to have a big problem,” one viewer joked.

“My life bucket list is to make friends with a lion, cheetah, tiger, panther, leopard and other big cats, so I can play with them, cuddle and pet them as much as the big cat allows me to, while at the same time saving the population of that big cat,” another user commented.

See the video below:

Sources: Daily Mail, Caters TV/YouTube / Photo Credit: AWM