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These amazing pictures show the heartwarming moment a lioness made sure her two cubs crossed a river - escaping a potentially fatal buffalo stampede.

In scenes reminiscent of Disney’s The Lion King, Jicho did her best to make sure that her youngsters did not suffer the same fate as Mustafa.

The two gorgeous cubs eventually managed to evade the oncoming threat - but only after their mum intervened.

(Image: Caters)

After seeing the herd, Jicho leapt across the stream onto the safety of an island but neither of her cubs had enough strength to climb up out of the water.

(Image: Caters)

The moment her two cubs struggled across the muddy water and barely had the strength to reach the other side of the stream was brilliantly captured by photography couple Laurent Renaud and Dominique Haution in the Masai Mara region in Kenya.

(Image: Caters)

Once they had reached the other side, neither cub could manage the climb up onto the island where their mother was standing.

At one point, their situation looked bleak with the two cubs struggling to gain any foothold on the embankment and a buffalo herd fast approaching.

Jicho had to growl instructions and encouragement to her crying young and eventually, after she leant down to help them up, the two cubs made their way up to safety.