Safari goers at the Kruger National Park in South Africa witnessed a real treat on 10 October 2024, when they were lucky enough to run into a lioness and her tiny cub on their morning drive.
When they first came across them, the lioness was padding down the road with a whole litter of cubs!
From their small size, these cubs were clearly very young, and it’s likely that they felt safer being hidden in the long grass rather than out on the open road like their braver sibling.
Hayley Myburgh, the safari guide who came across the lions, said that the “cubs, all but one, very nervously moved off into the long grass, while the mom and single cub continued.”
Watch The Sighting:
While a lioness can have just one cub, most litters include two or more.
The mother lion here is looking into the long grasses at the side of the road after putting distance between herself and the safari guests, to try and see where the rest of those playful cubs have got to.
Tiny Summons
While the lioness was looking for the rest of her cubs, the one she already had was not about to sit idly around waiting for its siblings to appear on their own. This little cub is the kind to take action to help its mother, even if it’s only small.
It can take from one to two years for a lion cub to learn to roar properly, but roaring wasn’t what this little guy had in mind. While the lioness looked for her cubs in the grass, her little helper started contact calling in its squeaky little voice.
Contact Calling For Cubs
Unlike many wild cats, lions are known to use contact calls, especially between mothers and cubs. It’s very different from roaring, which can have various purposes, including intimidation, distraction, or mating.
Contact calling is a much softer sound, more like the meowing of a house cat, which is used by lions when they’ve been separated to let each other know where they are. It can be very effective when one or more lions, or their cubs, are lost, as this instance shows.
Out Of The Woodwork
A convoy of lion cubs definitely isn’t something you see every day, even when you’re on a safari. Myburgh called it a “truly magical sighting,” which “reminded us just how special a spontaneous morning can be in Kruger.”
Lion School
Lion cubs learn by imitating the adult lions around them, so this little cub had likely heard its mom’s contact calling before, maybe even being summoned by the same sounds itself. Either way, they were all reunited happily with each other to enjoy the rest of their morning walk.
It was definitely an adventure for the little lions and a learning experience for all of them. With their sibling’s courage leading the way, maybe next time they’ll be a little braver.