Christian, the real lion king

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Maybe you are one of those more than 14 million people who's watched the story of Christian the lion on Youtube? If not, then here's a story that will melt your heart.

The story goes like this...

In 1969, two men named John Rendall and Ace Berg saw a lion cub for sale in Harrods. Cramped and lonely in a small cage, they decided to bring it home. A local vicar allowed them to exercise the cub, now named Christian, in the church grounds but he very quickly became too big for their flat. The only thing they could do was to try and reintroduce him to Africa, which they managed to do (in this video you see them travelling to Africa with him and releasing him into the wild). A year later they wanted to visit him but were told that he was now the head of his own pride and as such was completely wild and would not remember them. Undaunted, they went anyway. After many hours of looking for the pride, this is what happened when they finally found the wild lion... WATCH VIDEO

You can watch the story of Christian in many different versions on Youtube, but I like this one because it shows more sequences of just how close a bond these two men had with the young lion cub. Also this particular piece of music finally found it's rightful place of usage :-)

Above, it's a young boy having a playful moment with Christian. From Christian's facial expression (doesn't it almost look human??) it's no wonder he's captured the hearts of millions of people.

Enjoy!