Disney’s remake of the Lion King is ruling at the box office and people are loving everything about Simba in the recent remake.
The lion cub who is the inspiration behind Disney animators make Simba appear as natural as possible is a resident of the Dallas zoo.
The lion cub is named Bahati, and her full name is Bahati Moja which means ‘lucky one’ in Swahili. She was just a month-old when she was filmed two years ago.
“The world’s most famous lion cub may have gotten some of his moves from our very own Bahati!” the Dallas Zoo wrote on Facebook. “When Bahati was just a month old, we provided Disney with a video of her movements for their animation team to use for motion and behavior reference when designing Simba in The Lion King.”
“From walking on wobbly new legs to licking milk droplets off of her face, we captured every moment, no matter how small,” the zoo added. The video was viewed more than 47,000 times and was shared 550+ times.
The Dallas Zoo is located around 3 miles south of downtown Dallas, and it is the oldest zoological park in the state of Texas. It was established in 1888 after a man sold two deer and two mountain lions to the City of Dallas for $60 and they placed them in pens in City Park.
Bahati was the first lion cub born at the Dallas Zoo after over 40 years. She was born on St Patrick’s Day in 2017 through a scheduled C-section after her mother had previously delivered stillborn cubs.
We all know how much people are loving the remake of The Lion King. And they would love Bahati even more now. Most people would agree that the new Simba doesn’t disappoint us.