Into the lion's den

At the weekend, I was at a rural show in Hamilton. In one of the huge halls at the Showgrounds, there was a vast series of wire cages. Inside, at one end, were three white lions. At the other end, separated by a wall of wire, were two young Bengal tigers. And in the middle, in a kind of big-cat playpen, were two Royal White tiger cubs, only a few months old.
The cats come from Zion Wildlife Gardens, run by "The Lion Man," Craig Busch, who breeds rare and endangered species. It was one of his lions, Zion, who was the real-life model for Aslan in the filming of the movie of The Narnia Chronicles.
The tiger cubs, Rongo and Kiwi, were born here, two of only about 100 Royal White tigers left in the world - all in captivity. One day soon they'll go to Africa, to a special World Heritage animal sanctuary.
They may have been young, but they were still fairly big, standing as high as my shoulders on their hind legs.
I can say this with some certainty, because I went right into the tiger enclosure - inside the cages with Craig - to take some photos!
Luckily, it was just after feeding time.