Feature: Egypt's female lion trainer catches hearts of audience

Amid the cheers of the audience, Anosa, wearing a black costume, performed lion-taming acts that captivated the hearts and the eyes of watchers around the caged circus ring.

Very confident, Egypt's youngest female lion trainer Anosa Kouta stood in the circus ring and gently instructed her wild cats to do incredible shows.

Anosa, famously referred to as the "lion princess", always amazed the audience by presenting a group of lions and tigers in the ring together to perform marvelous shows.

The blonde 27-year-old youngest and most attractive beast tamer is considered the most popular lion trainer in the Egypt and the region for the variety of her performances.

She was born into a famous circus family that mastered taming wild animals since the 19th century. Her deceased grandmother was the first woman to train lions in the region and her father is Medhat Kouta, a renowned lion tamer circus star in Egypt.

Anosa, who obtained a bachelor degree in law, fell in love with wild animals since she was a little girl as she used to see them in every corner at home and the circus.

"This helped me much to start training and performing at a very early age," said Anosa as she cuddled her six-month lion cub named Shiva.

Despite her young age, Anosa does not stick to the classic school of lion taming. She always renovates her performances and comes up with new ideas for her shows to amuse her fans.

The wild animal tamer says she adopted such a job as a hobby rather than a source of income.

During her long career in the circus, Anosa trained more than 20 lions and tigers with her own style.

"I have never been violent to my babies because I believe that the four paws are similar to humans; they feel, think, learn, love and hate," Anosa told Xinhua.

Anosa uses her voice as the main way to communicate with her animals and barely resorts to her whip.

On the contrary, she feeds them, sometimes from her own mouth, pieces of fresh meat as a reward when they perform well during live shows or training classes.

Anosa started to perform locally in family-owned circuses as well as Egypt's National Circus, which helped her build a good reputation.

Her professionalism made her a world-famous lion tamer who performs in almost in all of the region's countries and Europe, mainly in Russia, where her older brother, Hamada, has his own circus.

Now she is only tamer of white tigers in the region as she is preparing two white tigers for coming-up live shows.

"Animals are smart...you cannot control them with a whip, but befriending them is the best way to control tem, this is my style," Anosa said as she placed little cub Shiva in her lap.

Commenting on the animal rights advocates who accuse animal trainer and circus performers of abusing animals, Anosa said she is also an advocate for animals' rights and is always against inhumane treatment of animals.

"I always demonstrate this concept in my shows. I treat my animals as if they are my kids. I play with them and I never hit any of them because they must have a good treatment just like human beings," she said as she fed a white tiger named Medhat.

Anosa said that her job never affected her personal or social life as many people think that she such a job ruined her life as a young lady.

"I'm just like any other normal girl. I go out with friends, I go on vacations and act just like a normal person...but my life inside the ring is totally different my life outside it," said. "In the cage, my live is dedicated to amuse both the audience and my big cats."

"Training and befriending animals enrich my personality and teaches me a lot," said Anosa as she prepared herself for a night live show. Endit