The meerkat and the weird cat: Lion cub makes an unlikely new best friend

 

It could be straight out of Disney hit The Lion King but this lion cub and meerkat cuddling up to each other is real. Meet the real-life Simba and Timon.

The loveable duo have been best chums since new-born lioness Zinzi was rescued by being taken into the home of zoo and safari ranch owner Marcell Tournier, 33, after its mother rejected her.

Just like cartoon character Simba - the lion cub hero of Disney classic The Lion King - young Zinzi was also separated from her family and incredibly formed and bond with a wandering meerkat.

 

In another incredible real-life parallel, meerkat Bob acts like the movie character Timon as a drifter. The cheeky critter only comes to Marcell's when he feels like it and enjoys free meals.

Pictures show how the pair were inseparable from the beginning and are still good pals today - despite rapidly-growing Zinzi, now six months old, now vastly out-sizing her cheeky chum.

And there's nothing they like better than lion around together in South Africa's summer heat.

 

(The unlikely duo became inseparable after they met when Zinzi was just one day old and have remained firm friends ever since)

 

(Meerkats can be very aggressive but two-year-old Bob is laid-back and is something of a celebrity at Predator World Zoo and Game Farm)

 

'Meerkats can be very aggressive but he's really cool', said Marcell. 'He's got loads of friends around here who he goes and sees every day. He plays with the hyenas and other animals and they don't mind him.

'He pretty much runs the whole farm,' he joked.

Bob's runs the sprawling Predator World Zoo and Game Farm, which covers 1,000 hectares in the country's north-west.

It is home to over 36 species of animal including leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, snakes and birds.

 

(Bob the meerkat makes a break for it from beneath a blanket as Zinzi the lion cub looks on)

If your heart has not been thoroughly melted, you are a bad person.