A photograph of what appears to be a tiny leopard cub being suckled by an adult lioness has drawn huge attention on social media, and also in the scientist community.
It has long been assumed that lions are programmed to kill leopards, old or young, on sight – but the image of this baby leopard bonding with the lion is the first of its kind to be documented.
Captured in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania, behaviour of this kind only ever seems to happen between species of the same kind.
“There is no other recorded case where a big cat in the wild has suckled a cub belonging to another species,” conservationist Luke Hunter said in an interview with local media.
He said the photo was taken on Tuesday and since then the lioness, known as Nosikitok, had returned to her pride some distance from where the photo was taken.
“So we are not sure what is going on now… it’s possible the mother leopard retrieved the cub from what was a temporary lioness day care, but we just don’t know.”
Nosikitok is a wild lioness, but is radio-collared and monitored by KopeLion, a Tanzanian conservation NGO.
Luke Hunter, who is the president of big cat conservation group Panthera, said Nosikitok’s behaviour could be explained by the recent births of her own litter three weeks ago – according to Eyewitness News.
“She is physiologically primed to take care of baby cats, and the little leopard fits the bill – it is almost exactly the age of her own cubs and physically very similar to them,” he said.
“She would not be nursing the cub is she wasn’t already awash with a ferocious maternal drive. Even so, there has never been another case like it, and why it has occurred now is mystifying.”
“It is quite possible she has lost her own cubs, and found the leopard cub in her bereaved state when she would be particularly vulnerable.”
In captivity, predators occasionally bond with other meat-eating species, but have almost never done so in the wild as they compete for prey.
Last year, another video surfaced of a female leopard adopting a baby baboon, and it adds to a long list of bemusing animal behaviours and interactions that suggest higher intelligence than previously thought.
