Never Mess With an Amorous Lion

MANAMA, Bahrain — Tarzan, the amorous lion, mauled his Italian tamer when he tried to stop him from mating with a lioness during a circus performance in this Persian Gulf state.

Tamer Jerry Ferrandino, 24, cracked his whip to stop the impromptu love match between Tarzan and lioness Susie in front of several hundred spectators, many of them children.

But Tarzan turned on his tamer and clawed his arm.

“Jerry’s brother and father entered the ring and threw a chair at the lion,” Eileen Miller, an organizer at the visiting Circus Monte Carlo, said Thursday.

According to Miller, the tamer continued the performance after Tarzan was removed from the ring. He later went to a hospital to have his scratches treated.