Four adorable lion cubs who faced a death sentence have been saved at the 11th hour by a Kent wildlife park.

The siblings belonged to a UK big cat breeder but after their mother died he planned to have them put down.

That was until Howletts Wild Animal Park at Bekebourne near Canterbury stepped in and offered them a new life.

They were barely a week old when they arrived at the park and have been patiently and lovingly hand-reared by keepers.

All the time they have been protected from the public gaze. But now they are strong and healthy, park bosses felt confident the boisterous foursome could make their debut in their new enclosure where they are delighting visitors.

The siblings are a boy called Cazzo and three girls, Zimi, Simbi and Kari.

They are housed in the former enclosure, of Zemo and Zala - the two lion cubs that were also hand-reared at Howletts and recently sent to South Africa to embark upon their first steps back to the wild.

But park bosses say the new arrivals will remain at Howletts “for the foreseeable future”.

Howletts has one other long term lion resident, a magnificent five-old-year male called Khari.

He sadly lost his partner, Grace when she died shortly after giving birth to Zemo and Zala, but now he is being joined by two new lionesses from Hannover.

Over the last few weeks the sistersAlani and Zuri have been gradually mixed with Khari and all is said to be going very well.

In recent years, the parks, have embarked on a programme of re-introducing animals back into the wild with great success.

Its Back to the Wild campaign has seen 75 Western Lowland gorillas rehomed in the Congo and Gabon, a further 280 primates released in Indonesia and five Eastern black rhinos in Tanzania.

In a world first, a lion which was captive born in the UK and subsequently rewilded to the South African wilderness by The Aspinall Foundation, has against all expert opinion, made his first successful kill in South Africa.

And in May 2022, two male lions named Azi and Zazu, one year and ten months old at the time of relocation, left from their home at Howletts for a specialist sanctuary run by Love Lions Alive in Free State province, South Africa where they are thriving.