Will Burrard-Lucas, a wildlife photographer, built the armored "BeetleCam" so that his camera could get up close and personal with dangerous animals. After some trial and error, he headed to Kenya's Masai Mara with his brother, Matt Burrard-Lucas, to photograph the lions there. The adorable remote-control vehicle ended up doubling as a toy for the lion cubs, making for some amazing images. The video "teaser" below shows the contraption in action, and Burrard-Lucas shares many still images on his website. You can even buy your very own armored BeetleCam, made to order.

Burrard-Lucas describes the expedition in detail on his site:

On the morning of our first day in Kenya, we were understandably nervous as we tentatively deployed BeetleCam and trundled it towards one of the largest male lions I have ever seen. The buggy looked tiny and insignificant as it approached the ferocious-looking beast. We had visions of the lion’s huge paw shattering the diminutive vehicle with a single swipe. We edged the buggy forward and the lion considered it sedately. We inched closer and closer until it was within touching distance. Our nervousness turned to elation as we snapped away. Perhaps these cats weren’t so bad after all! Maybe we had just been unlucky in Tanzania? We retrieved the camera and gawked in awe at the incredible lion portraits that we had captured.

For more from Project BeetleCam, follow Burrard-Lucas on Facebook or Twitter. Check out more videos from the Atlantic Video channel's Friday Fauna series here.