A pair of rare white lion cubs have been born at a nature reserve in southern Spain.
The five-day-old cubs, a male named Simba and a female named Lira, were born to two common African lions so workers at the 'Little Africa' reserve said they never expected them to have white cubs.
The cubs were transferred into a special room to control their feeding on Friday in Jimena de la Frontera, a mountain village in the Andalusia region of Spain.
According to the Global White Lion Protection Trust, the animals are not albinos but "a genetic rarity".
"For me it has been something spectacular, it is not every day you can have a white lion in your hands," said biologist Fabiola Mesa.
White lions were removed from the wild and placed in captive breeding and hunting operations in the 1930s.
They are classified as Panthera Leo, which means they are not recognised by current scientific labelling as being 'different' and are therefore not protected by law, according to the organisation.
This means they can be hunted or traded to extinction despite there being less than 13 white lions living in the wild in their natural habitat.
