This picture — taken by Sheila Hassanein at Paignton Zoo Environmental Park in Devon, South West England — puts a new twist on the old nursery rhyme.

It shows seven-year-old female Asiatic lion Indu and a tiny tawny owl chick which had fallen out of its nest.

Paignton Zoo keeper Lucy Manning says: “The tawny owls nested in a lime tree in the lion enclosure. One day the chick just turned up on the ground. Indu peered at it for a while but then lost interest. I think it was too small to eat. We believe it got away — if she had eaten it there would have been fluff and feathers.”