WATCH | Baboon 'adopts' and grooms lion cub

03 February 2020 - 11:56 By TimesLIVE
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Watch the amazing moment when a male baboon steals a lion cub and grooms it. 

This rare sight was caught by Kurt Schultz in the Kruger National Park on February 1 2020.

Schultz was driving on to the S21 near Skukuza when he came across a troop of “restless” baboons. “Being early morning this is relatively common”, but then he noticed a baboon carrying something the rest of the troop was interested in.

“A young male baboon crossed the road and climbed up a marula tree. I waited for about 30 minutes before it came into view and was moving from tree to tree. The rest of the troop then moved away and the baboon was grooming and caring for the lion cub as if this was a young baboon.”

It is normal for a troop of baboons to kill young leopards and lions, said Schultz, but this was the first time he had seen a baboon nurturing and caring for a predator cub.


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