After 20 years of being chained in a circus, a mountain lion has returned to the wild.

Mufasa, a 20-year-old mountain lion who had been tied in the back of a pickup truck for his entire life, has been set free and returned to the rainforest.

Mufasa was captured when he was a cub and forced to live in a filthy roadside circus in Peru.

Most circuses disregarded the law after Peru prohibited wild animals in circuses in 2011. Animal Defenders International (ADI) hunted them down and took the animals away one by one.

When ADI received information that an illegal circus was still operating in a remote area of northern Peru, they embarked on a campaign to save the big cat.

They were accompanied by police and wildlife officers, which was required because the rescues were met with resistance.

Finally, the remaining circus was cornered and Mufasa was handed over after an 8-hour standoff during which riot police were called.

For the first time in years, the heavy harness and shackles that had been wrapped around his torso for so long were finally broken. Mufassa would be the last wild animal to be released from a Peruvian circus!

Mufassa was brought to ADI’s rescue center, where he was nursed back to health for several months before being moved to his new home on an Amazon rainforest nature reserve.

In the video below, you can see Mufassa’s trip from chains to the jungle.

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Update on Mufassa . He passed in 2015, just a few years after being rescued and released at the sanctuary/nature reserve. “Unfortunately, Mufasa passed away in December 2015 after a few months of independence,” ADI wrote. His existence in the circus, where he was shackled to the back of a pickup truck, had taken its toll on his health, and he was suffering from kidney failure and other age-related ailments. We’re sorry he didn’t get to spend more time in his natural habitat, but the real tragedy would have been if he’d never had the opportunity.”