Today is World Lion Day, a day when we can celebrate the world’s largest cats and raise awareness of the real dangers they face in Africa and Asia, where the King of the Jungle is fast-tracked to become extinct.

Lions are proud majestic creatures, and if you are lucky enough to have seen one on an Africa Safari Holiday, you will understand just how magnificent they really are. But sadly, like Africa’s rhino and elephant populations, lions are being poached and hunted at an alarming rate, with some scientists suggesting that there could be just 20,000 wild lions left in Africa.

As the hunter becomes the hunted, it is up to us to make sure that lions, tigers and other big cats survive the threats placed upon them by the ever-growing human population, and do our bit to support some of the many organisations behind World Lion Day, such as the National Geographic’s Big Cat Initiative.

A world without lions would be a very sad place indeed, and while we may be able to breed them in captivity and keep them in zoos, these mighty cats do not belong in cages and manufactured enclosures, they need to roam free on the Serengeti Plains, the Masai Mara and Okavango Delta… it’s their homeland after all, not ours.

Here’s our tribute to World Lion Day…