Monkeys Snapped Recreating Iconic 'The Lion King' Scene

You're lying if you say you've never picked up a baby, small dog or your cat and recreated the whole circle-of-life Rafiki holding up Simba thing.

And it turns out that our monkey ancestors aren't so different, with one photographer recently capturing two monkeys having a go at recreating the iconic scene from Disney's The Lion King.

Caters/Dafna Ben Nun

Thirty-eight-year-old Dafna Ben Nun was in Zimbabwe when she took part in a trip to learn more about local wildlife. She was probably hoping to find that in real life animals are nothing like what we see on TV and in movies, but instead she found this pair doing the whole 'circle of life' routine.

The perfect timing led to a pretty amazing shot and is surely a contender for next year's Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards.

The animals, that are native to South Africa, are often found in open Savannah and open hills around Africa. However, they are not often found recreating scenes from popular children's movies from the 1990s, so this was quite a treat.

Walt Disney

Dafna, from Israel, said: "I couldn't believe it when I saw an adult baboon holding a baby, looking exactly like Simba in The Lion King.

"It was just a split second, but it was fascinating to watch!

"They were all in the same group so no harm was done to any of the animals."

In the movie, baboon Rafiki lifts tiny lion cub Simba up on a cliff-edge while Elton John belts out the 'Circle of Life'. Clearly the monkey in this picture couldn't get his hands on a lion cub at such short notice so he's holding up a baby monkey instead. Nicely done.

The 1994 Disney classic is still ranked as the number one animated film of all time, according to Ranker - ahead of the original Toy Story and Finding Nemo.

Another poll put Mufasa top of the list of 'movie dads', smashing stiff competition from Bryan Mills from Taken, Ron Weasley's dad, Arthur, from Harry Potter and Daniel Hillard/Euphegenia Doubtfire from Mrs Doubtfire. Not bad for a lion who is killed off in the first half of the film, eh?

Topics: TV and Film, Animals

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]

@ClaireReid19