It's like watching Lucy and Aslan in the modern day Narnia, except it would not seem right to see Aslan the lion paw against a glass in any fictional Narnia.

Three-year-old Sofia Walker was caught on video making friends with a roaring male lion more than thrice her size in New Zealand's Wellington Zoo.

Other children in the viewing looked visibly and understandably scared as the lion, called Malik, appeared to have been annoyed by their getting too close to the glass barrier.

However, a more careful viewer of the video noted that the lion did not seem agitated at all. In fact, its mouth was closed the whole time it was pawing against the glass, which scared the other children except Sofia.

The lion's mouth would partially open in between his pawing gestures.

Sofia's family uploaded the video of the encounter to YouTube.

"What's he telling me?" Sofia asks her mother, apparently frightened for her child who did not show signs of fear in her face off with the king of the jungle.

The mother told Sofia to back off, as the lion might be asking her to move away.

Instead, the little girl stared the lion straight into its eyes.

The lion stared back at her, while it seemed to be trying to get a sniff of Sofia, before it begins to paw against the glass again, this time its fondness for the brave young girl is more visible, with its mouth closed again.

The Dominion Post spoke to Sofia's father, Julian Walker, who said he thought the lion was agitated because Sofia might take its food.

"[Malik] just felt that my daughter was trying to take his food so that's why he reacted that way. She wasn't scared. She's a very strong and adventurous character," Mr. Walker said.

Mr. Walker uploaded the 45-second clip to YouTube after the family's January 4 visit to the zoo. It has since been noted by different publications, and received hundreds of views.

Little Sofia goes to Churton Park Little School. Her parents, who are also fond of animals, take her to the zoo at least once a month.

In the YouTube video title, Sofia's father called her daughter 'the lion tamer.'

"We've got animals and pets at home so I guess she thought it was a big pet cat but I think he would react differently if she cuddled him," Mr. Walker told the Dominion, adding that Malik's kind is second only to giraffes among her daughter's favourite animals.

"She's always had this quiet confidence with animals, but she's certainly more confident with a lion than I would be, that's for sure," Mr. Walker further said about his daughter.

Sofia, meanwhile, was unfazed by the whole encounter.

Malik, who turns 8 in April, is one of five lions at Wellington Zoo, with his brother Zulu, and three females, Djane, Djembe and Zahra, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Sofia also caught the attention of the zoo's staff.

"[Sofia] came across as a bit of a rock star, didn't she? She's just got a bit of spunk and doesn't really seem to mind too much. There were a couple of moments where she was a little bit surprised, which is fair enough completely, but she didn't seem too bothered," Wellington Zoo team leader of carnivores and primates Paul Hatton told the Herald.