Recently, on January 1, a rare incident happened in Kruger National Park, South Africa: A baboon carried a small lion up a tall tree. These images were captured by Kurt Safari’s tour operator, Kurt Schultz. The male baboon is holding the lion cub and climbing the tree as if it were his cub.
As Schultz passed a group of baboons, he noticed that they seemed very excited; his crew was also observing the monkeys and saw the silhouette of a lion cub inside. Looking closer, they discovered a monkey was carrying the lion. At first, everyone thought the lion was dead, but when the baboon crossed the road, climbed a tree, and groomed the animal, they knew the lion was still alive.
Baboons steal lion cubs while mother hunts.
According to IFLScience, baboons are members of the most prominent family of primates, the Old World Monkeys, and they are all very large. Baboons can be very aggressive when defending their territory. However, it is not common for baboons to kill the young of large animals such as big cats or the offspring of other members of the herd. And their behavior is unusual.
The young lion screams when the baboon hugs the tree
“During my 20 years as a guide in south east Africa and 20 years here in Kruger, I’ve seen baboons attack and destroy leopard cubs and heard of baboons killing their cubs. Lions, but I’ve never seen them take care of their cubs like this.” – Schultz’s email to IFLScience, says.
Like all primates, baboons groom each other, although the cause is different in each species. According to Schultz, “The male baboon takes care of the cub as a mother would take care of her young cub.” However, this did not appear to be a pleasant experience for the lion.
With this condition, it seems the lion won’t be able to survive
“The animal appeared to be exhausted; although it was not visible to the naked eye, it appeared to have suffered internal trauma. Baboons are a healthy species; the lion may have suffered trauma. when the monkeys get excited, compete for it in the beginning.” Schultz said.
Although the age of the lion has not been determined, the area where the incident occurred is known to be where lions or leopards hide their cubs between hills or large rock holes when hunting. Because of this, the young can be hungry, thirsty, and even injured, with a small chance of being saved when taken away. Despite being prey to leopards, baboons have large fangs, 5 cm longer than lions, which means they can fight adult leopards.
Although similar to this legendary movie scene, natural life in real life is difficult.
We may often see animals of different species becoming best friends in captivity, but this sighting is rare in the natural world. And the lion probably won’t live long. Schultz was sad to witness this incident, but he had to admit that:
“Nature works its way, and we can’t interfere. Our job is to keep Kruger in place.”
