Meet Simba, king of the house!

Animal enthusiast brothers add lion cub to collection of exotic pets

KARACHI: Prowling from corner to corner, Simba the lion cub looks for his next prey. He stealthily creeps up behind his unsuspecting victim and pounces; batting at his owners’ legs with his small paws. Licking their faces and cuddling with them, this predator is entirely domesticated. Formerly king of the jungle and recently king of the house, the one-and-a-half-month-old cub wears a diaper and roams the Hussain home in PECHS.

Animal enthusiasts Hamza and Hassan Hussain are known for their menagerie of exotic pets, to which Simba is a new addition.



He was barely a week old when his mother abandoned him, refusing to feed him. “His mother was suffering from calcium deficiency, so she wasn’t feeding him,” said Hamza. “We then decided to separate Simba from his mother and rear him on our own.”



Almost a year ago the duo bought a South African seven-month-old lion and six-month-old lioness from Lahore for Rs1.5 million. Since the felines were more than six months old when they were bought, Hamza said that they could not be tamed. The brothers had to cage them on the roof of one of their friends’ houses. “We have a proper enclosure for lions at our friend’s house,” he said, adding that they did not name the lions, as they had already become wild.

Later, he said that the couple gave birth to two male lion cubs, one of which they brought to their home and named Simba. According to Hamza, lions can be domesticated if they are reared by their master from birth.



Since lions are not social animals, they tend to manage best with a single master. If there are too many masters, the felines cannot be tamed and become aggressive, he explained. If the lions are caged, there are chances that they can become wild, he said.  “In cages they usually feel isolated and tense, due to which they can definitely attack you,” he explained, adding that for the time being they were going to rear Simba at their home in Karachi and, in a year, when he gets mature enough to breed, they plan to move him to their farm in Sukkur.

Food for thought

According to Hamza, Simba drinks six ounces of Royal Canin starter milk 12 to 13 times a day. When Simba is hungry he roars. He also devours 700 grammes of minced chicken and drinks gripe water daily. After Simba is fed milk, he immediately hides and takes a nap. Hamza says that the cub is like a baby.

Becoming domesticated

“He [Simba] roams around the house wearing a diaper as he isn’t house-trained,” said Hamza, adding that he also suckles their index fingers, as it gives him a sense of comfort.



At night, he said that they make Simba sleep on the floor. “When we wake up in the morning, we see him sleeping on the bed with us,” he laughed, adding that Simba has become attached to their entire family. “In our absence, our mother and aunt take care of the Simba,” he said.



According to Hamza, a few of their relatives have cats in their homes. Though they rarely orchestrate meetings between Simba and the cats, the cub behaved well and played with them when he did meet them. He even adopted their habits.

Legally binding

Hamza claimed to be the only person in the city to have a lion club in his home. Simba lives with the brothers legally, as they obtained a licence from the Sindh wildlife department to keep the lion at home. Sindh wildlife department licence branch head Mumtaz Soomro said that if someone has a mini-zoo permit from them, they can definitely keep a lion or any other wild animal at their home.

A mini-zoo, he said, could be formed inside any house, which their teams approve after several visits. 



Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2016.