There is nothing stronger than the bond between you and your animal, especially when you helped raise them.
People dedicate their whole lives to saving animals, just out of love, and this is what Kevin Richardson does.
One day, while working at the Lion Park in South Africa, he witnessed a mother lion reject two of her newborn cubs. Some people may have feared approaching the pair, but Kevin’s instincts told him otherwise.
Rather than letting them get taken and put in cages, he placed the cubs into a wildlife park, where they could flourish.
The goal at the center was to raise these cubs in a way that meant they could grow up into fully functioning adults without human assistance.
Seven years on, Kevin decided he was going to visit the pair, named Meg and Ammy, and understandably he was nervous about their reaction.
See the amazing moment for yourself in the video below:
It had been a long time since they had seen each other, and he was unsure if they would remember him.
Kevin decided to approach the lions without hesitation, and thankfully for us, he recorded the encounter with a GoPro.
While one of the lions was by the water, he decided to jump in and approach her while calling her name.
“When I call Meg 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.”
What happened next was truly incredible, as soon as she realized who Kevin was, she jumped straight into the water and embraced Kevin with a hug.
Kevin describes them as his ‘soul mates,’ they will always have this special bond no matter how long they are apart.
He also went on to explain how the cubs learned to trust him so much, as they spent time together:
“To see the lions doing what lions do for me was exhilarating. It made me realise there was a different way to work with these predators in captivity. Meg and Amy and me have a history that goes to when they were born.”
Kevin felt that Meg and Amy were “destined for a bullet” by trophy hunters and said he “firmly believe that if I never had m and a back they would have landed up in some shape or form in the canned lion hunting market.”
Kevin, also known as the ‘lion whisper,’ also founded the “Kevin Richardson Wildlife Sanctuary,” which is a 3,000 lion shelter in the African savanna. He shelters 26 lions of different ages, many like Meg and Amy, who he had known from cubs.