If you heard the ‘king of the jungle’ went to the doc for a scan yesterday, you’d probably think it was for a ‘CAT scan’ (pun intended) – and at a vet. However, you would be mistaken.

Group Editors was on the prowl last night as journalist Jacqueline Herbst and cameraman Cameron Squire captured the moment a young lion named Zamba underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at Garden Route Radiology in George.

Zamba, around 13 months old, is one of five spirited male cubs at the Outeniqua Game Farm in Ruiterbos in the Outeniqua Mountains. After falling from a tree earlier this year, he often appeared off-balance.

Various courses of treatment had limited success, and Zamba’s owners now hope the MRI will pinpoint the exact cause of the problem, as it gives detailed pictures of soft tissue like the brain, spinal cord, muscles and organs.

Here’s what happened:

• The Practice Plus Group states in a website post highlighting the differences between an MRI and computed tomography (CT) scans, also known as CAT scans, that: “Both MRIs and CT scans are medical imaging methods that are used to create images of the internal body to help diagnose a range of different medical conditions. The main difference between these two diagnostic imaging techniques is that an MRI uses strong magnetic fields to take images, while a CT scan uses X-rays.”