The cub looks like it's laughing uncontrollably, is surely having fun

Oct 14, 2013 20:26 GMT  ·  By

To my knowledge, wildlife researchers are yet to figure out whether or not lions are ticklish and able to laugh their heart out every once in a while.

Still, it seems to me that the lion cub pictured above is doing just that: bursting with laughter, all because its mom keeps tickling it. Zoo Borns tells us that this scene was caught on camera at Parken Zoo in Sweden earlier this year. The felines are Asiatic lions, and are now living in captivity at this facility.

For the time being, the International Union for Conservation of Nature considers this species to be an endangered one. Thus, just 350 such felines are estimated to currently inhabit India's Gir Forest area.

Conservationists are trying to breed them in captivity and say that, over the past 40 years, the overall headcount for the species has nearly doubled.

Still, there's quite a lot of work left to do if Asiatic lions are to escape extinction.