Incredibly friendly lions in Crimea

Источник: Daily Mail 

He's just a big pussycat really! Incredibly friendly lion loves cuddling up to humans... and even giving them a KISS. More than 50 lions live at Taigan Lion Park, in Crimea, along with a variety of 1,500 other animals and birds. Nikita Korzun, 43, visited the park and was surprised to see the humans and lions interacting so well together.

Head of the park, Oleg Zubkov, is pictured playing with the wild lions and patting them as if they were cats.

There stunning images show tame lions interacting with their human best friends.

The typically-ferocious beasts have instead become gentle giants after they were raised by humans at Taigan Lion Park, in Crimea.

Heartwarming images have captured the lions cuddling up to fearless humans as they pose for selfies, go for a swim, and even offer their human friends a kiss.

Russian photographer, Nikita Korzun, 43, visited the park and was surprised to see the humans and lions sitting on top of each other in a field. 

Head of Taigan Lion Park, Oleg Zubkov, kisses one of the friendly lions at the Crimean safari park

The typically-ferocious beasts have instead become gentle giants after they were raised by humans at Taigan Lion Park

The 50 lions who live in the park seem to be at ease with humans, who they readily and happily interact with

His surreal pictures show the 418-pound lions welcoming their human companions as they happily pose for selfies, and kiss each other on the mouth, and one white lioness even reaches out a helping paw to a man swimming in a pond.

Other spectacular images show the beasts affectionately greeting people from their cars and in one incredible image, a keeper bravely puts his arm into a lions mouth to pose for the camera. 

Head of the park, Oleg Zubkov, is pictured playing with the wild lions and patting them as if they were domestic cats - offering one a flower and kissing another. More than 50 lions have their home at Taigan, making it the biggest lion park in Europe. 

In winter, when temperatures drop below freezing and snow is on the ground in Crimea, lions stay in warm houses.

But in the spring all fifty African lions are being released into a 'wilderness' - fifty hectares of Crimean land. 

The park is home to 1,500 other animals and birds - including tigers and some incredibly rare white lions

In this touching image, a white lioness reaches out a helping paw to a man swimming in a pond

The 80-acre Taigan Safari Park, which is open to the public, is in Crimea's Belogorsk town

The park is home to 1,500 other animals and birds - including tigers and incredibly rare white lions. 

Mr Zubkov, a conservationist, said he hopes that the exposure will discourage people from hunting Siberian tigers and white lions - endangered species with respective global populations of about 500 and 100.

By HANNAH AL-OTHMAN