Deon Strydom was fortunate to witness this tender moment and shared his experience with Latest Sightings. He filmed it on a game drive in Pilanesberg National Park, located in South Africa’s North West Province.
Watch the sighting:
Lioness In The Long Grass
Deon’s video starts with a lioness walking through the long, green grass. As she moved, she let out soft, throaty grunts.
As she emerged into view, a high-pitched yelp rang out nearby. In response, the lioness stopped to listen.
Still unsure where the yelp were coming from, she moved forward before stopping once more to listen.
In the image above, we can see that she is in her prime and her teats are heavy with milk.
Lion cubs depend on their mother for milk for about half a year.
Homing In
After a few moments, it looked like the lioness had a better idea where the sound was coming from. She continued walking, soon emerging on the road in front of Deon.
All the while, the high-pitched calls continued in the background. Interested in finding their source, the lioness started walking down the road ahead of Strydom.
Increased Urgency
As she progressed down the road, both the lioness’s grunts and the yelps increased in frequency. Then she stopped, her ears pricked alertly.
Moments later, Deon’s delight grew as a tiny lion cub emerged from the long grass to the right of the road.
The little cub trotted towards its mother, all the while yelping at her.
Second Cub
Subsequently, Deon’s excitement grew even more as a second cub followed closely behind its sibling.
Lionesses identify their cubs by smell, so a quick sniff can easily recognize this little one.
Back On Duty
Now reunited with her offspring, any semblance of ‘peace’ she had enjoyed during her absence was gone. Probably hungry and not too happy with Mom for leaving them alone in the first place, the cubs had a lot to say for themselves.
At the same time, they likely felt relieved to be back with their provider and protector.
Follow Me
As soon as they reunited, the lioness turned back the way she had come and led the cubs into the grass.
Obediently, the cubs followed. Given her urgency to get going, it is possible that she was taking them to a recent kill somewhere in the park.
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Mother Of Lions
Given their strength and ferocity, it is easy to assume that lions are excellent mothers. However, as with so much in Nature, it’s complicated.
Females start to breed at around 3.5 years of age. They give birth to litters of up to 4 cubs after a 110-day gestation. Lionesses leave the safety of their prides to give birth and take care of their cubs alone for the first six weeks of their lives.
This means that she has to leave them alone to hunt. At these times, they are vulnerable to attacks from other predators.
This is exacerbated when new males take over prides. Eager to mate with the females, the newcomers will kill any juveniles they encounter.
Cubs are also vulnerable to injury, disease, and starvation when times are lean.
Combined, these threats mean that lions have a high infant mortality rate of up to 80%.
All that said, the females practice communal rearing, as one would expect in social animals.
We wish these cubs and their devoted mom all the very best!
Here’s another encounter with cute baby animals
How To Wake Up A Baby Elephant
Conrad Cramer witnessed the most adorable interaction on a safari one day. Baby elephants were taking their midday siestas, eyes heavy with sleep
Napping Afternoon
When Conrad arrived, he saw a herd of elephants resting and escaping the heat in the middle of the day under a covering of trees.
Suddenly, the herd’s matriarch decided that it was time to move on. Elephant herds are led by the oldest female, called the matriarch, and she decides all actions of the herd, from migration to feeding.
Very Big Alarm Clock
The calf was sound asleep, amongst the protection of the herd. Its mother used her trunk to nudge the baby elephant awake, and the baby lifted its head and flared its ears, looking alert already.
Just when the mother elephant thought the alarm job was already done, the baby elephant thought about snoozing a few extra minutes.
A Hard Warning
The mother elephant thought it needed to be more firm, but still gentle. The baby did not budge, even after repeated gentle nudges
So the mother did a light kick on the baby’s behind, and this suddenly brought the baby up awake.
Isn’t it Unfair?
The baby has an older sibling still sleeping, and it was also time for him to wake up.
Maybe it felt unfair for the younger one, so it decided to wake his older brother himself. It took a bit of tussling with its weight, and then it was up.
Later on, they realized that the rest of the herd had already moved on. They had to hurry to catch up with the herd.