Malik the lion was tucking into his breakfast of meat when Sofia Walker, 3, hopped onto a viewing platform and pressed her hands and face against the glass enclosure.

In an attempt to scare curious Sofia off her perch, Malik glared, growled and twitched his mane before pouncing on the glass and pawing at it.

"My daughter turns around and says, 'what's he telling me mama', and my wife says, 'he's telling you to get down'," father Julian Walker said.