A 13-year-old lion who spent his whole life caged in a zoo never experienced the feeling of grass under his paws until this month.

Before his rescue the lion lived in a tiny cage that barely allowed him to move as part of a circus.

Now the lion lives in open grasslands at Rancho dos Gnomos, an animal sanctuary in Brazil. 

Watch how happy the lion is to feel the Earth beneath his feet for the first time in this video: