Lions are amazing. In pursuit of food, the magnificent African cats roam the plains. With incredible strength and disturbing precision, they can hunt. They’re faithful and fierce. The pride continues to stick together. But they also love amazingly. These pictures captured in the Masai Mara demonstrate a daddy lion in a scene that looks directly out of a Lion King film – giving his cub a hug!

National Park Masai Mara is located in Kenya, Africa. It is an enormous national park where hundreds of protected species are free to roam. The park is often funded by safaris and tourism, however. 53-year-old Parisian Sabine Bernert was on a safari when she took these amazing shots. Sabine was researching lions for a book about them for children, and it is evident that they are nothing more than larger versions of our usual house cats. You can obviously see where the inspiration came from for the Lion King movie!

Sabine loved the special moment she witnessed. “The lion pretended he hadn’t seen the cubs until the last second,” she said. “Then they started to play joyfully. I especially love the moment when the male lion is hugging the cub softly. The contrast between his brute strength and his gentleness, the huge size of his paw very softly holding the little cub.

“I was amazed by the way this huge lion was playing so gently with the cubs… They really looked like they were enjoying themselves and having fun. With the delicate light of the sunrise, it was a pure moment of grace.”

We hope these gorgeous moments are portrayed in Sabine’s book!