Hugo the bulldog eats, sleeps and plays with little white lion Igor and white Bengal tiger, Ice, who he has adopted as pups of his own.

The two-year-old bulldog even disciplines the lion and the tiger when their play fights get out of hand.

The three animals live together with former vet assistant, 26-year-old Or Lazmi, who is hand rearing the cubs.

Miss Lazmi, 26, said: ‘When Ice first got here she was about the size of a sausage so she didn't play with Hugo because he was too rough.

‘When she was about five or six weeks old she was able to hold her ground and we started to let them interact on a regular basis and they have been good friends ever since.

‘Igor is a bit of an odd baby and mostly does his own thing but they also play together. Hugo will stalk him and then jump on him.’


The young cubs spend their days at Seaview Predator Park in Port Elizabeth, SA, before returning to the nearby house in the evenings.

The bizarre relationship between father-figure Hugo and his adopted children has grown overtime thanks to regular family outings to go walking and swimming.

Sometimes Igor will drag Hugo by his lead - but like the any good father makes sure to assert his authority.


‘At this point Hugo can still bully them around,’ said Miss Lazmi, a former vet assistant from Israel.

‘But in about a month's time they will definitely be bigger than him - so we will have to see how much of a bully they turn out to be.’

Miss Lazmi, who moved to Africa to follow her dream of working with wildlife, has previously hand-reared eight tiger cubs and several litters of lion cubs.


The cubs have been home-reared to help them safely interact with park vets when they are older and bigger.

Igor and Ice weigh two-and-a-half stone now but Igor will eventually tip the scales at 28-stone and Ice at almost 40-stone.

They are rapidly growing and are fed on a diet of ribs and bottle feeds three times a day.


When fully grown they will be fed a horse leg once or twice a week.

Meanwhile the biggest Hugo will grow is seven stone.

This huge weight difference means that despite their bond Hugo may one day have be separated from his adopted pups.


Miss Lazmi added: ‘There have been times when big cats kept their relationship with pets as full-grown animals but we will have to see how this goes.

‘If they get along and they are still friends that is fine.

‘But if they start seeing Hugo as prey - then we will have to stop the interaction between them.’
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