There are a fair number of stories of predatory animals protecting the young of other species.

I heard this story a couple of times yesterday from a couple of different news sources. The theory was that the whimpering of the girl (it's certainly understandable that under the circumstances she would be terrified) sounded much like the mewing of a lion cub and triggered a protective instinct in the lions. This was the view of a lion expert who was being interviewed about the story.

Could be wrong, of course, but the story, especially the way the news services presented it, sounded genuine to me.

Don Firth