Mischievous little cubs always make for great sightings, even better when one happens to have a rare coloration. This lion family had an unusual white cub amongst their number.
The three big cats, a lioness and her two cubs, were spotted by Julian Geerts, who caught footage of the moment and sent it to Latest Sightings. He encountered the lions at the Timbavati Nature Reserve.
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A Family Hanging Around
After a long day of looking after two energetic cubs, the lioness looked like she had completely given herself over to the goal of relaxing. The white cub in question was doing its best to copy her, with the two of them sprawled out over the ground.
But while the white cub and its mother were content to lie back and have a doze, the second cub had other things on its mind from the beginning. It clearly thought relaxing was a waste of time when it could practice hunting instead.
Coming in quickly over the sand, the energetic lion cub didn’t pounce on its sibling so much as it collided with it. It would have to get in a lot more practice before it would be ready to go out into the wild to catch prey.
A Fierce Battle Begins
The poor white cub that was just trying to enjoy its downtime saw its more energetic sibling coming in hot, and rose to meet it with paws outstretched and then the battle began. Both of them were immediately competing with each other for the upper hand.
Their combat took them down a small slope while their mother, no doubt happy to not be under attack herself, apparently continued to slumber nearby. It appeared that the white cub was managing to get the upper hand.
Despite starting the conflict, the brown cub was spending more time on the floor rolling around than its white sibling, which seemed to suggest that it was in a weaker position, but it might have been trying to encourage the other cub to play.
Attempting To Disengage
The energetic cub’s attempts to play were so successful that the white cub ended up batting it over a few times with its paws. This happened despite the other’s efforts to resist.
Eventually, clearly feeling like it was losing the competition, the little lion cub that started it all tried to disengage and started walking away, but it didn’t get very far before it was dragged right back into it again.
For all of its efforts to escape, the instigator was caught by the white cub, flipped onto its back and held there on the ground. It appeared that the wrestling match might have its victor already.
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The Tables Always Turn
Play fighting like this is not only entertaining to watch, but vital for these cubs to develop into capable adult lions. It helps them build their strength and practice their hunting moves.
If the white cub had stopped the fight at this point, it would have been triumphant, but instead it chased its sibling, up the hill and back to the lioness where the two began rolling around and this time the white cub was on the losing side.
Julian was lucky to capture such a moment at such a location, with an unobstructed view, as the white lion cub ultimately lost the fight it had looked so sure to win.