The lions’ keepers Bob, Ian and Wayne took me and my family to meet their new nine-week-old brother and sister lion cubs Kink and Sylvester. Kink got her name as she had a kink in her tail and Sylvester was born with a lazy back leg, which means he has to have regular exercise to make it stronger before he can go in with the pride.

When I first saw the cubs, I was speechless. They were so beautiful, fluffy and cute and looked exactly like the cubs Simba and Nala from the film.

The cubs were very cheeky, as they kept trying to bite Bob’s wellie boots with their sharp baby teeth. They were very playful and kept jumping up at each other. Sylvester even tried to bite Kink’s tail!

During the time I was with the cubs, their mother was watching and had a worse glare and growl than my mum when she gets cross at me and my brother, Jake!

The cubs are still fed by their mum, although they do get given meat twice a week. This is very good for them and encourages them to use their teeth and claws to eat.

After the cubs, Wayne took us around the rest of the park. We were able to see feeding time with the lions and the wolves, which was amazing. While on safari, we were able to see other wild animals, such as the warthogs, giraffes, rhinos, hippos, ostriches, elephants and many more wild land animals.

We took the boat trip for the jungle cruise, and were able to feed fish to the sea lions that jumped up at the side of the boat. From the boat we were lucky to see Nico, the oldest gorilla in the world, who has his own island with central heating and Sky TV. His favourite programme is SpongeBob SquarePants.

I had a truly magical and fun-filled day with the lion cubs at Longleat Safari Park, www.longleat.co.uk, and can’t wait to go back.

by Abbie Bainbridge