Lioness spares, protects baby baboon

11 July 2014 - 15:28 By Times LIVE
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now
A baby baboon. File photo.
A baby baboon. File photo.
Image: Gallo Images/ Thinkstock

A lioness killed a baboon, only to find its infant crawling out from under its dead mother.

National Geographic reports that two photographers, Evan Schiller and Lisa Holzwarth, were witness to a stunning scene in northern Botswana’s Selinda Camp when a pride of lions came into contact with a troop of baboons.

The lions had the baboons trapped in some trees, with the two groups screaming at each other.

Eventually one of the baboons tried to make a run for it, only to get snapped up by a lioness. Then a baby baboon crept out from under what was its mother.

“The baby was showing signs of physical harm and fatigue from the whole ordeal. The lioness picked the baby up in her mouth—it was in agony watching the baby’s ordeal—and I kept on turning off the video option on my camera because it was hard to record,” Schiller said.

Her fears however turned out to be misplaced - the lioness actually took the baboon and protected it, until a nearby male got the chance to pull off a rescue and get it up a tree.

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now