U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon capped off a week of high-level U.N. discussions on the environment by "adopting" a 6-month-old lion cub Saturday.

 

The young lioness, which was found abandoned in Nairobi National Park, will be raised by the Nairobi Animal Orphanage. Ban named the cub Tumaini, which means "hope" in Kenya's language of Kiswahili, after his "hope that all people around the world will be able to live harmoniously with nature."

 

"I sincerely hope this lion will grow healthy, strong and even fierce," Ban said, drawing parallels with his hopes for the environment after this week's first U.N. Environment Assembly.

 

The assembly was the highest-level U.N. body ever convened on the environment. More than 1,200 participants from 193 member states spent the week in Nairobi, where the U.N. Environment Program is headquartered. Ban said he hopes to see U.N. member states adopt a climate change deal during formal talks in Lima in December.

 

Ban's new lion cub is not the first exotic pet he's received as head of the U.N. In 2009 Mongolia presented Ban with a rare horse named Enkhtaivan, or "Peace," and in 2008 South Sudanese President Salva Kiir gave Ban a white bull named Ban Ki Moo.