14 DAY TRIAL // Sure, we all like getting a hug from our pet cats every once in a while. Still, having a 110 pounds (50 kilograms) feline wrap its ginormous paws around them is very few people's idea of having a good time.
As it turns out, Valentin Gruener and Mikkel Legarth, now working with the Modisa Wildlife Project in Botswana, Africa, are two of these very few people.
Some time ago, these conservationists rescued a lioness that was abandoned by the rest of the pride, and soon enough a very strong bond formed between them and the feline.
The picture above shows Sirga, as the lioness is now named, hugging the life out of Mikkel Legarth. The latter does not even flinch, just to show how confident he is that the lioness would do nothing to harm him.
“She hunts her own food, taking antelopes and she will let us be near her when she eats it which is remarkable. Sirga doesn't mind people, but she doesn't pay them any attention,” Valentin and Mikkel explain, as cited by Daily Mail.
As part of their work in Africa, Valentin and Mikkel help keep lions that get too close to human communities from coming into conflict with local farmers by relocating the felines to a large area where they have enough food not to wish to return to their previous home.