Kevin Richardson is so at one with big cats that many people know him as “The Lion Whisperer.” But when one of his rescuees pounced at him recently, he was left fearing what she’d do to him.

One lion keeper was out on his land when he came across a fully-grown lioness whom he’d rescued as a cub. The man had always been close to the animal, but he knew that she was capable of great harm. So when she pounced on him, his life no doubt flashed before his eyes.

The wildlife of Africa has always fascinated Kevin Richardson. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Richardson went on to study zoology at college before quitting over the repetitive nature of his course. But while Richardson feared that his dream of working with animals may never come into fruition, fate had other ideas.

When he was 23, Richardson took up an opportunity to help out at Lion Park near Johannesburg. There, he helped rear two cubs called Tau and Napoleon. The experience turned into a part-time job, and Richardson soon became an expert in lion behavior. What’s more, eventually, he used his expertise to launch his own project: the Kingdom of the White Lion, in nearby Broederstroom.

In his new position, Richardson looks after 39 lions. And to manage the wildcats, he relies on his instinct rather than any rigid rules. In fact, to gain the animals’ trust, he has slept, eaten and even lived with them. Yet despite his proximity to dozens of lions, none of them have ever seriously injured Richardson. As a result, his incredible relationship with the beasts has earned him the nickname “The Lion Whisperer.”

Richardson’s fearless approach to big cats has also won him a legion of fans. And in turn, the conservationist is using his celebrity status to highlight the plight of lions. You see, the lion population is declining, and Richardson believes that the animals could disappear from the wild within two decades.

As part of his mission to save the lion, then, Richardson rescues animals in need. And in 2003 the animal expert took in two female cubs, whom he subsequently named Meg and Amy. The pair’s mother had abandoned them at birth and left them for dead in a ditch.

After taking Meg and Amy under his wing, Richardson grew extremely close to the young lionesses. “Meg and Amy and me have a history,” he explained in a video posted to the GoPro YouTube channel in August 2017. “It goes back to when they were born. They were rejected by their mother, and she actually just chucked them in a water ditch.”

But it pained Richardson to see Meg and Amy – as well as the other lions in his care – inside cages. So, he decided to introduce radical changes to the way that he ran his sanctuary. Subsequently, the keeper let the lions out of their enclosures and allowed them to roam free.

“I didn’t like the fact that there were these cats in cages. I wanted to give them a little bit more than that quality of life. So I started pioneering certain things at the park I was working at,” Richardson explained. “One of those things was taking the lions out of their enclosures and letting them walk in the greater area of the park, amongst the animals.”

Consequently, Richardson began taking the two lionesses out on “enrichment walks,” during which they could get to know the African plains. “That’s how Meg and Amy started their life,” he said. “They were pretty free in their sense that when we take them out they can do whatever they wanted.”

Watching Meg and Amy explore and enjoy their natural environment was a joy for Richardson. However, he soon noticed that with the change of surroundings came a change of personality. And before long, the cats had reverted back to their typical predatory ways.

“Meg and Amy off the bat were just great huntresses. Even lions that have lived in captivity all their life can hunt pretty well. That is just in their DNA,” Richardson explained in another YouTube video for GoPro, which gave viewers a behind-the-scenes look at his life with the lions.

And observing the change in the cats was just magical for Richardson. “To see the lions doing what lions do, for me was exhilarating,” he admitted. “It made me realize that there was a different way to work with these predators in captivity.”

But now that their hunting instincts were back in full effect, Meg and Amy were potentially even more dangerous than ever before. This meant that Richardson would have to have his wits about him whenever they were roaming free. Just because a lion had never maliciously attacked him in the past, it didn’t mean that it couldn’t happen in the future.

Then, one day, Richardson was wading through the river in the park when he noticed a rustling sound coming from the waterside. It was Meg, and she was stalking him through the reeds. And as Richardson watched the humongous cat move towards him, he stopped in his tracks. But it appeared that the lioness had already decided on her next move.

Slowly, she made her way down the riverbank. Then, without warning, she leapt through the air, hurtling, claws outstretched, towards Richardson. In that moment, the lion expert had no idea what Meg was about to do to him. And her reaction left the lion keeper shocked.

You see, Meg landed with a splash in the water before wrapping her two gigantic paws around Richardson’s shoulders for a cuddle. Furthermore, in the embrace of her rescuer, the lioness finally overcame her fear of water, which had resulted from her mother abandoning her in the ditch when she was a baby. “I thought, ‘Wow, that’s amazing. This lioness trusts me enough to, you know, come into the water,’” Richardson later said.

Now, Richardson and Meg regularly go swimming together. “What I find quite interesting is Meg’s love of water, considering what happened to her as a baby,” Richardson added. “When I call Meg and she comes swimming I see in her face going, ‘What, are you going to catch me?’… It’s an unspoken language really. She looks at me, and I look at her. That’s trust.”

And seeing Meg and Amy grow in character is even more rewarding when Richardson considers what could have happened to them. “I firmly believe that, if I had never got Meg and Amy back, that they would have landed up – [in] some shape or form – in the canned lion hunting market,” he said. “Definitely, in my mind’s eye – especially where they were – they were destined for a bullet.”

But while Richardson may have saved their lives, the two lionesses have given him so much in return. “Meg and Amy are kind of my soulmates,” he explained. “It’s like humans. You can meet many, many people in your life, but there’s very few that you connect wholeheartedly with.”