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Soft, brown fur, sharp teeth: the several weeks old lion cub is kicking in the arms of the tourist, who is smilingly photographed with the cute animal on a farm not far from the South African capital Pretoria.
"Cuddle selfies" are what the animal rights activists of the Humane Society International-Africa (HSI-Africa) call them.
Scenes like this were the order of the day before the corona restrictions and their consequences for tourism in the Cape.
But they are only one facet of the multi-million dollar business around private lion rearing on the Cape.
Because there thousands of lions are raised privately in enclosures in order to later drive them to the guns of hunters from Europe, the USA and other regions of the world.
"Canned lion hunt" is what it means there - hunting for "lions out of the can".
But that should end in the future, according to the will of Environment Minister Barbara Creecy.
She wants to slow down the controversial breeding of lions in captivity and has now made extensive recommendations for this.
In South Africa, thousands of lions are reared in enclosures in order to later drive them to hunting tourists
Source: pa / dpa / Sinikka Tarvainen
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In it, she also raises the ethical question of what the shooting down of a reared lion in a fenced area has to do with real hunting.
“Preventing captive lions from being hunted is also in the interests of the real wildlife hunting industry,” she says, emphasizing that her recommendations are not directed against the hunting industry.
Lions - bred for a selfie or a trophy
“The government has finally adopted recommendations to end the heinous lion breeding for gate hunting;
In the future, lions will no longer have to suffer from terrible conditions for a selfie or a trophy, ”said Audrey Delsink from HSI-Africa.
When the lions are still small, they are often used to pose in front of the camera
Source: pa / dpa / Sinikka Tarvainen
Although so far only recommendations, she already speaks of a great success for the South African lions.
They estimate that almost 11,000 captive-bred lions are kept on over 260 lion farms across the country.
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The International Animal Welfare Fund (IFAW) also sees reason to celebrate.
In a statement, IFAW Country Director Neil Greenwood spoke of "one of the worst animal welfare abuse cases of modern times" and emphasized: "It took more than 20 years of lobbying and the gruesome death of thousands of lions out of pure commercial greed for the South African government to finally draw a line."
Germans are strongly represented in the big game hunt
An HSI analysis of trade data for mammal species listed in the Washington Convention on the Protection of Species (CITES) revealed that a total of 4,176 lion trophies were exported from South Africa from 2014 to 2018.
In the EU, Germany is one of the main importing countries for lion trophies from South Africa.
According to the animal welfare organization Pro Wildlife, Germans make up the largest group of big game hunters after Americans and Spaniards.
Animal rights activists have denounced the lion business for many years
Source: dpa / Adam Peyman
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According to a request from the German parliament to the Federal Environment Ministry, hunters from Germany brought hundreds of animals listed in the Washington Convention on Endangered Species with them as trophies - including 14 lions.
According to information from private providers, it costs around 20,000 euros to shoot such an animal at the Cape - a three-week hunting trip can easily cost up to 100,000 euros.
South Africa's controversial lion breeding industry argues that trophy hunting is saving certain species from extinction - a similar argument that is also used to justify resuming elephant hunting in neighboring Botswana and Zimbabwe.
Environment Minister Creecy also believes that well-regulated trophy hunting programs make an important contribution to wildlife protection and the livelihood of the local population.
But how much money from trophy hunting actually reaches the locals is controversial.
Shooting in enclosures is not a sustainable hunt
Stephan Wunderlich, foreign hunting expert of the German Hunting Association (DJV), also warns against confusing shooting lions in enclosures with sustainable hunting.
“It's a real industry - comparable to cattle breeding - and limited to South Africa,” he says.
Hunting associations have resolutely rejected this for years.
In countries such as Namibia, Botswana or Zimbabwe, individual lions living in the wild are hunted to regulate the population and in human-animal conflicts.
"This also applies to elephants: In Botswana, for example, a population of at least 135,000 elephants ensures that the animals permanently destroy their own habitat - and that of other species," says Wunderlich.
Animal rights activists see another problem.
While the Washington Convention prohibits the trade in bones of wild lions, the bones of captive lions can be exported from South Africa.
However, since it is hardly possible to distinguish between body parts of wild and captive lions, this promotes the smuggling of bones from lions from the wild in their opinion.
This man cuddles with a lion like it is a cat
Kevin Richardsons is a lion whisperer.
He cuddles and plays with the most dangerous predators in the world.
He exposes himself to danger every day because he has a mission: to save the animals.
Source: WORLD / Kristina Zimmermann