After discovering that one of the resident lionesses had given birth to a cute litter of cubs, everyone in the reserve was excited to see them.
Michael relates how the guides at MalaMala had given the mother and cubs some space in their first few days, so that the mother was not under added stress.
However, on this particular day, the mother lion decided that she was now ready to show off her cubs.
Lioness and cubs spotted in riverbed
Michael says that he and a group of game viewers had been scanning the dry riverbeds for any clues of the lions’ whereabouts, when the distinctive sound of a mother lion had caught their attention.
He says they had followed the sound of the calls come across what he calls ‘the cutest little lion cubs’.
The cubs were playing with each other and their mother was standing in a tree nearby.
She looked down on her cubs from the tree, which wasn’t very big, and let out some calls.
Cubs gather around tree base
Having alerted the little ones that she was above them in the tree, the cubs then tried to reach her, using their small legs. They ran frantically around the base of this tree, looking up at their mother and letting out their own cute contact calls.
Says Michael: “It sounded as though Mom was trying to communicate with her cubs and tell them to come up”
The little ones, with their tiny legs and small size, thought that this was an impossible task. They found a much smaller branch of the tree which had fallen and thought that this was more their size.
They climbed it with ease and looked over to Mom. However, their mother didn’t want them to climb any small branches. She wanted to teach them the skill that not many lions have: climbing a tree.
Leopards are are known for their skill of climbing trees, not lions. However, lions have been observed climbing trees on occasion. Sometimes, they will climb a tree to steal a kill of a leopard that was left in a low enough branch, and other times just for a bit of fun and games.
The mother kept calling her cubs, and one of them understood that Mom meant business. It went to the base of the tree that its mother was in and looked up towards her.
Climbing the tree seemed an enormous task but the cub was determined. One paw at a time it began climbing, digging its tiny claws into the bark to give it some traction.
Cubs succeed in tree climbing feat
“It inched slowly up until it was only a few inches from its mom. You could see the great sense of achievement on the cub’s face when it took the last step,” says Michael. “Its mother stood there, proud of herself.”
She had successfully taught the cub to climb into a tree.
The other cubs followed suit and what followed was some tender moments between the mother and her cubs. .In the end, the mom came down, proud of all her cubs. Each of them put in an excellent effort in learning this new skill.