Dodoma July 14 (IANS) Photos have emerged of a lioness nursing a baby leopard a first of a kind sighting deemed as an extremely rare event the media reported on Friday.
The pair were spotted by Joop Van Der Linde a guest at Ndutu Safari Lodge in Tanzania s Serengeti National Park reports the BBC.
The five-year-old lioness named Nosikitok has a GPS collar fitted by Kope Lion a conservation NGO and three young cubs of her own born late last month.
Luke Hunter President and Chief Conservation Officer for Panthera a global wild cat conservation organisation which supports Kope Lion told the BBC the incident was "truly unique".
"It s not something that I m aware has ever happened before between large cats like this " he said.
"We know there are cases where lionesses will adopt other lion cubs... But this is unprecedented."
Most lionesses would normally kill a baby leopard if they found one seeing just another predator in a competitive food chain.
She was around a kilometre from her den where her own cubs are hidden when she found the spotted substitute.
"She s encountered this little cub and she s treated it as her own. She s awash with maternal hormones and this fierce protective drive that all lionesses have they re formidable mums " the lion expert noted.
--IANS
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