The world welcomes Nala and Simba, two cute white lion cubs, offspring of two endangered white lions who were rescued from a circus in France.
Named after the lead characters of the Disney blockbuster, The Lion King, the cute cubs were born on July 28th to two endangered white lions rescued by the Caresse de Tigre sanctuary in France. The latest members of the species the white lion cubs are adorable and weigh around 6 pounds each.
They currently stay with the owners of the sanctuary and former circus performers who take in big cats who are mistreated or born in captivity.
Klimond Brigitte one of the owners also shared videos of the white lion cubs and it is a total dose of cuteness overloaded.
In this video, the cubs can be seen playing with one of the pets.
Caresse de Tigre is spread over 300 hectares of forest area in La Mailleraye-Sur-Seine, on the banks of the Seine River in northeastern France. White lions are a subcategory of endangered species and currently listed as vulnerable by IUCN Red List. National Geographic explains that there are 4 categories of endangered species. Vulnerable, endangered, critically endangered and extinct in the wild.
Only 11 white lions are left in the wild
The White Lion is native to South Africa and on 2018 only 11 were recorded left in the wild as per official lists of whitelions.org. In captivity, there are less than 300 worldwide. White lions are created by a genetic mutation and are technically very light brown rather than pure white.
Director of Lion Research Center at the University of Minnesota Craig Packer said that the gene which creates white lions is almost the same that gives blue eyes to Caucasians and few people possess them although most don’t.
Nala and Simba will be going their separate ways after a while
The two newborn white lion cubs Nala and Simba will stay together and not be separated which they will in time. Simba is all set to join an animal shelter in France while Nala will be going to a park in England. That is unfortunate that animal babies always have to be separated.
Klimonde Brigitte said that without the shelter of the sanctuary, the parents of the white lion cubs would never have met each other. Thus, what has occurred is an amazing thing for nature and the species.
The owners of the lions wanted to sell them to a circus and Klimonde says, 5000 Euros were paid for them. So welcome to the wide world Nala and Simba.
Watch another cute video below.