At the Caresse de Tigre sanctuary in the northwest of France, the birth of a pair of baby white lions—adorably dubbed Simba and Nala—marked a happy outcome after a pair of adult lions was rescued from a circus and kept out of a potentially heartbreaking situation.
Simba and Nala are incredibly rare. The pair aren’t just regular lions, but white lions—and with their kind listed as vulnerable on the endangered species list, Simba and Nala might be two of barely 300 of their kind left around the world. It’s tough to know exactly how many of these gorgeous lions truly still exist, though; there were just 11 left in the wild as of 2018, and it’s difficult to get accurate numbers to estimate how many are in captivity when illegal breeders and circus owners try to fly under the radar.
