While one can’t say what became of the little cub, Kurt was amazed by the tenderness this baboon showed towards it. Baboons have been known to attack and even kill cubs, however, this one appeared to adopt the cub; and carried it as it would its own offspring, even into the tree tops!
Baboon carries cub into the treetops
Kurt explained how the unusual sequence of events began. “I had a meeting at Skukuza, one of the camps, for Kurt Safari on Saturday, so I was in the Kruger for the morning. Before the meeting, I decided to enter the park early to do some photography – a hobby and passion of mine.”
He said that he was driving onto the S21, one of the roads near Skukuza, when he came across a troop of baboons being restless. This restless behaviour is typical ‘early morning’ behaviour for baboons.
However, something was amiss. There was a baboon carrying something and it seemed the rest of the troop members were interested in that baboon. On inspection, it was easy to see why – the baboon was carrying a lion cub!
The baboon held onto the little thing quite tightly. It appeared to be quite enamoured by it, and held it close to itself.
“Knowing the area, I know there are cubs present in the area lately and being early morning, and close to a granite rock face, I suppose the baboon troop rested during the evening on the rocks. They probably during the early morning moved down to start their day foraging for food came across the hidden Lion cub,” said Kurt.
Cub partakes in troop grooming session
The cub sat quite meekly in the baboon’s embrace and the baboon appeared to be inspecting it. However, miraculously it wasn’t merely observing the cub; she was in fact grooming it!
It appeared the baboon had adopted the small lion as its own.
Interestingly, upon waking up, baboons often have a mutual grooming session before beginning their day. On this special day, a lion cub got to partake in the grooming session.
There were some scintillating moments of viewing which followed. The baboon didn’t stay still on the branch and in an edge-of-seat moment, held the cub and leapt through the air to another branch.
The little lion cried out in distress, but was soon calmed when the baboon put it back on a branch, and continued to groom its back. No tick or flee on this little lion’s back was going to survive the baboon’s fastidious grooming!
It is not unusual for mother baboons to carry their little ones around in this manner. From this baboon’s perspective, the young lion was as another little baboon.
However, Kurt explained that what was unusual was that this was in fact not a female baboon. Rather, it was a male baboon acting in a paternal manner towards the cub.
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“I first thought it was a female baboon but it was in actuality a young male baboon. The young baboon crossed the road and climbed up a marula tree. I waited for about 30 min 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.”
Fate of lion cub unknown
Kurt said they spent about an hour at the sighting before decided to leave as his meeting was at 9 am. “It is normal for a troop of baboons to kill young leopard and even lion, however after 20 years of guiding this is the first time I have seen a baboon nurturing and caring for a young predator cub,” he said.
One has to wonder what happened to the young lion cub. One hopes that when the troop moved off for the day, it somehow remained behind and was found by its mom or dad. However, nature can be brutal and while one hopes for happy endings, the bushveld has its own way.
What is heartwarming, however, is the tenderness shown to the cub, and the humorous moments caught on film where the cub relaxes into the baboon’s lap and allows itself to be groomed.