Lioness befriends baby buck
2012-10-10 14:01
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Take a look at these peculiar pairs.
The understanding between predator and prey is rather simple and basically comes down to survival of the fittest.
However, Dutch photographer Adri De Visser recently captured an extremely rare moment of tenderness between a lioness and a baby Ugandan Kob... shortly after said lioness had killed the baby's mother.
Huffington Post reports that De Visser got word of two lions feeding on a kill in the Queen Elizabeth National Park and went to take photos of the scene, only to be met with a much better one.
After feeding on the carcass of the Uganda Kob, the lioness retreated to the shade of a nearby tree to rest. Moments later, the antelope's offspring popped out from its hiding spot in the tall grass.
What followed was about 45 minutes of truly exceptional game viewing.
De Visser captured a series of photographs depicting the unfolding friendship: the lioness getting a closer look, then patting the tiny tot and finally picking it up by the scruff of its neck as she would her cub, when a park ranger appeared on a motorbike.
Other tourists to the park reported seeing the baby Kob unharmed later, after the photos were taken, according to The Daily Mail.
This interspecies friendship may be rare, but it's not entirely unheard of. In 2002, a Kenyan lioness named Kamuniak, meaning "the blessed one," adopted at least five baby antelopes throughout the year.
Take a look at the pics on Huffington Post.
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