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Buru wants to be held. Lekki wants to be held more. Neither of them is willing to wait their turn.<\/p>\n
The two lion cubs, rescued from the illegal wildlife trade by conservationist Freya Aspinall’s U.S.-based nonprofit, have developed a habit that would be completely ordinary in the wild<\/a>. They compete<\/a>, physically and vocally, for the attention of their mother, or in this case, their caregiver. They nudge, push and climb over each other.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc36<\/strong><\/a>SIGN UP to get “pawsitivity” delivered right to your inbox with inspiring & entertaining stories about our furry & feathered friends<\/strong><\/a>\ud83d\udc3e\ud83d\udc3e<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n They’re competing for the attention of a 22-year-old woman who grew up alongside big cats.<\/p>\n The Rescue Operation That Saved Buru and Lekki<\/p>\n The playful moments are amazing, but these two cubs’ lives weren’t so rosy at first, as they were moved through the illegal wildlife trade.<\/p>\n The rescue operation <\/a>took Aspinall and her team through remote and dangerous parts of Africa. The cubs had been intercepted, but once they were out of the trafficker’s hands, they had no safe place to go.<\/p>\n The rescue was only the beginning. The next step was finding a temporary shelter. The first safe place came from a facility called Greenfingers Wildlife Conservation in Nigeria. However, the team located another facility where Buru and Lekki could stay long-term until they returned to the wild.<\/p>\n Related: Baby Rhino Spots a Pride of Lions and Has Some Thoughts About Who’s Really King of the Jungle<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n A Behavior With Deep Roots<\/p>\n In the wild, cubs routinely fight for position in the pride near their mother. They want access to her warmth, grooming and proximity\u2014that means safety. For lions, affection isn’t what humans understand it to be. Instead, it’s a survival instinct.<\/p>\n It’s unclear whether Buru and Lekki are biological siblings, as their origin in the trafficking pipeline remains unclear. Still, they behave like littermates.<\/p>\n “They certainly act like siblings. This behavior is just as they would compete for their mother’s attention in the wild, which is very sweet and I take as such a compliment,” one person commented on Aspinall’s Instagram post.<\/p>\n Aspinall<\/a> is the daughter<\/a> of Damian Aspinall, the British conservationist who founded the Aspinall Foundation and has spent decades rewilding zoo-born and rescued animals. She left school at 16 to work in conservation full-time and grew up at her family’s animal sanctuary in Kent, England. There, raising orphaned cubs wasn’t an unusual event.<\/p>\n What Is Next?<\/p>\n The illegal wildlife trade is one of the largest criminal enterprises on the planet. Lion cubs are trafficked for private ownership, cub petting operations, and the exotic pet market.<\/p>\n The plan for Buru and Lekki is to care for them until they can be released back into the wild. Unlike wild cubs, those raised with human contact need time to develop the hunting instincts, social skills and physical conditioning required to survive.<\/p>\n For now, the cubs are safe. And every day, they stage the same small war over who gets to sit closer to the person they have decided is theirs.<\/p>\n Related: Big Lion ‘Finds Love’ After Losing His Mommy and It’s Absolutely Bittersweet<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally published by Parade Pets<\/a> on Sep 9, 2026, where it first appeared in the Pet News<\/a> section. Add Parade Pets as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n