Baby animals are always fascinating to watch, and usually amusing too. Lion cubs probably moreso than most, as a result of their playful nature and penchant for mischief.
It doesn’t matter where they are or what’s going on around them, they’re usually trying to start or continue some kind of game, or otherwise make a nuisance of themselves.
Michael Botes spotted these cubs in the MalaMala Game Reserve, and caught all of their antics on camera before sending it in to Latest Sightings.
The footage shows how much these little big cats enjoy themselves even when they’re not doing anything. Relatively small, and entirely carefree, these lion cubs spent their time climbing, and then falling off, rocks.
Intrepid Explorers
They didn’t appear to be under any kind of adult supervision, which meant that it’s likely their mom had stashed them in a safe area so that they wouldn’t get in the way of her hunting efforts.
This is typical behavior for both predator and prey animals, but for prey animals it’s usually far more important for them to stay motionless, and hidden.
These lion cubs would also be vulnerable to any potential predators until their mom came back, but that didn’t stop them from enjoying their free time without the watchful eyes of parents.
Instead of hiding and worrying about the future, they climbed out of a patch of vegetation onto some large looking rocks, and began playing their typical games. One lion that made it up onto the rock first looked very satisfied with itself as it looked out on the others.
Nowhere To Be And Nothing to Do
Without any lionesses from the pride to keep the lion cubs in check, their games began to grow increasingly chaotic. They didn’t have any responsibilities in the moment, and that meant they weren’t really sure what to do with themselves other than take the game further.
Some of them lounged around enjoying the sun, some enjoyed themselves by wrestling, and some continued exploring the immediate area, without fear or concern for themselves.
Many of them climbed on and around the rocks, because as cubs, these lions are the best at climbing that they’ll ever be. Adults are still capable climbers, and will often reach into the lower branches of trees to steal kills from leopards.
As they grow older, however, they begin to lose much of the nimbleness and flexibility of their youth, and climbing becomes harder for them than it does for other animals.
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Strange Place For A Bath
One of the lion cubs that had climbed to the top of the rock had decided that it wanted to stay there, and what’s more, it felt that this was the perfect place to give itself a bath.
It was in the middle of twisting this way and that to make sure it was clean when instead, it just fell off the rock. It’s a hard life being an unsupervised lion cub, but although it decided it was done with the bath, it did climb back into place and lie down.
It’s unknown how long the cubs were there before their mother returned. The time of a lion hunt varies wildly depending on what they’re hunting, and whether or not their first attempts are successful.