A Woman Raised These Lions and Now They See Her as the Leader of the Pack

by N/A, 10 years ago | 2 min read

Since these four lions were cubs, Or Lazmi has raised them in captivity. The lions regard her as their head lioness. I've never seen anything like this before–both Lazmi's passion for the animals and the lions' willingness to regard her as their alpha left me absolutely dumbfounded.

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Watch this woman and her pride of lions.

This is Or Lazmi. She works at a privately-owned wildlife park in South Africa.

Or is the "head lioness" of a pride of four lions.

The lions are 17-months-old, and Or has known them since they were cubs.

This has allowed Or to become an alpha-like figure of the pride. This means the lions are submissive to her, and thus they allow her the closeness and intimacy displayed here.

Or has stated that she has earned the trust of the lions.

This means that not just anyone can walk up to the lions and be treated with the same affection–they're still wild animals, and need to be regarded as such. By being a constant figure of dominance since the lions were cubs, Or plays into the lions' natural mentality of pride hierarchy.

It's important to remember that the lions are still extremely dangerous predators.

Or disciplines the lions when they misbehave as a method of keeping herself at the top of the hierarchy, though the lions are not "trained." Still, one wrong move and she could easily be eviscerated.

But Or believes she has learned enough about the lions' moods and personalities to keep herself safe from any harm.

Quite brave faith to have in these lions, but one has to assume she knows what she's doing.

Ultimately, the plan is to release the lions into the wild.

Currently, the standard belief is that lions raised by humans in captivity cannot be released into the wild. Or hopes to prove this belief wrong. In South Africa, there are more lions in captivity than in the wild. So if Or does prove this wrong, it means very good things for the species.