Simba returns to the zoo after leaving his kingdom in Qatar

Simba, a 4-year-old male lion once owned by the royal family of Qatar, has made the Detroit Zoo his new home.

The Detroit Zoo said on Thursday that the royal family received Simba as a gift, but decided later that the lion would be better off in a different environment, the Associated Press reported.

“The owners recognized that they didn’t have the expertise to properly care for lions and made the sensible decision to find Simba a good home,” Detroit Zoological Society’s (DZA) curator of Mammals, Robert Lessnau said in a statement. “We’re happy to provide sanctuary for Simba at the Detroit Zoo,” the Huffington Post reported Friday.

Simba, who will be with the Detroit Zoo’s other lions in a recently remodeled 7,500-square-foot habitat, didn’t come directly to Detroit. He initially came to the Midwest from Saudi Arabia in October, 2012.

At the Detroit Zoo, Simba joins the two female lions, Bikira and Erin, the zoo said in a statement.