'The baboon was grooming the lion cub as if it was a baby baboon.'
A male baboon carrying and grooming a lion cub is something that is thought to happen only in movies such as, yet such a scene was filmed in South Africa's Kruger National Park over the weekend.Kurt Safari operator Kurt SchultzA male baboon carries a lion cub in a tree in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. The baboon took the little cub into the tree and preened it as if it were his own, said safari ranger Kurt Schultz who said he has never seen such behaviour.
"Male baboons do a lot of grooming but the care given to this lion cub was the same care given by a female baboon to one of her own young."Schultz said when he first saw the baboons early on Saturday, the troop of baboons was excited and animated. It is possible they had discovered the lion cub, he said.
The baboons had gathered in an area with granite hills and boulders where lions and leopards have been known to hide their cubs while they go hunting, he said, and that's likely how the baboons found the cub.Credit:Baboons "are really strong animals and when they were all excited and fighting over the baby in the beginning, it could have been injured internally", Schultz said.
Only in the movies? Rafiki, the wise baboon arrives to celebrate the birth of baby Simba, as Mufasa and Sarabi look on with pride in the film The Lion King.."I have witnessed baboons viciously killing leopard cubs and have heard of baboons killing lion cubs."
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