A Lebanese animal welfare organisation rescued a five-week-old lion cub from a balcony in downtown Beirut, where it was kept as a pet.
Animals Lebanon, a non-governmental organisation, is now looking after the rescued cub.
A spokesperson for the animal rights group said the cub was smuggled into Lebanon before ending up as a private pet.
According to NGO officials the popularity of lions kept as pets has "drastically increased" in Lebanon in recent years.
Lions are listed on the Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), but Lebanon has not yet joined the treaty.
"We are working with the Ministry of Agriculture to have Lebanon join CITES, the convention which should regulate the trade of these animals and hopefully prevent some of these cases from occurring," said Jason Mier, executive director at Animal Lebanon.
There are only 40,000 African lions left in the wild today and their population has decreased by at least 48 percent over the last 22 years.
3 News / APTN