{"id":421,"date":"2014-02-09T17:33:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-09T17:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ANIMALPAGES.COM\/animals\/?p=421"},"modified":"2025-07-12T16:20:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T23:20:43","slug":"the-man-who-hugs-wild-lions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/the-man-who-hugs-wild-lions\/","title":{"rendered":"The Man Who Hugs Wild Lions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Kevin Richardson is known as the lion whisperer. He has made himself part of a pride of lions, as well as a group of hyenas (known as a \u201ccackle\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"581\" data-attachment-id=\"424\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/the-man-who-hugs-wild-lions\/hugging-lions-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/hugging-lions-2.png\" data-orig-size=\"1273,722\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"hugging-lions-2\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/hugging-lions-2-300x170.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/hugging-lions-2-1024x581.png\" src=\"https:\/\/ANIMALPAGES.COM\/animals\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/hugging-lions-2-1024x581.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-424\" srcset=\"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/hugging-lions-2-1024x581.png 1024w, https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/hugging-lions-2-300x170.png 300w, https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/hugging-lions-2-768x436.png 768w, https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/hugging-lions-2.png 1273w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch Kevin hug, cuddle, and play with these wild predators while sharing his intimate knowledge of these amazing animals. He also discusses the danger of lions going extinct in the wild and the importance of habitat restoration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"GoPro: Lions - The New Endangered Species?\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/MNCzSfv4hX8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information on lion conservation, please visit:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20230924070805\/http:\/\/www.lionwhisperer.co.za\/\">http:\/\/www.lionwhisperer.co.za\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-2571651847880215\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\n<!-- banner ad -->\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-2571651847880215\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"7178535257\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kevin Richardson is known as the lion whisperer. He has made himself part of a pride of lions, as well as a group of hyenas (known as a \u201ccackle\u201d). Watch&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":423,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,32],"tags":[44,46,36,42,96,18,31],"class_list":["post-421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animal-tales","category-animal-videos","tag-african-animals","tag-big-cats","tag-cats","tag-conservation","tag-lions","tag-videos","tag-wild-animals"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/hugging-lions.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":425,"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions\/425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalpages.com\/animals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}