The lion was first spotted trapped in the snare in Mikumi National park in Tanzania but several attempts to rescue him failed.

After three years, the cord had become so tightly wrapped around the lion’s neck that he was left unable to hunt and his gaping wound attracted flies and infection.

The young animal would soon have been lying in agony in the African bush facing a certain death

The lion was found by park rangers and vets managed to sedate him and cut away the electrical wire snare. The lion has now been photographed in the wild for the first time since his ordeal and appears to be recovering with his mane growing back over his neck and shoulders.

The rescue ended a three year hell for the lion. As he has grown over the last three years, the wire snare got tighter and tighter around his neck, and began causing a slow agonising death.

By the time he was found he was so weak he was unable to hunt, but amazingly he was being kept alive by the love of his brothers and sisters in his pride.

They didn’t kill him as often is the fate of weak male lions, but instead the siblings in his pride kept him alive by bringing him back prey they had hunted.

William Mwakilema, Chief Park Warden in Mikumi National Park, said: ‘It was a terrible situation for this lion. He was first seen three years ago with the snare around his neck.

‘He had got caught in the snare which poachers usually use for illegally trapping smaller game animals like impala.

‘He had pulled back, taking the snare with him, and it had been left around his neck. Because he had grown in size over the past three years, the snare has got tighter and tighter around his neck, in effect slowly garroting him. It would have been an agonising death for him.