Sometimes there are things in the wild that can amaze and surprise us. You never know what Mother Nature will throw your way. Well, it so happens that something peculiar was captured (photo and video) by a safari guide in South Africa. It is an amazing but unusual incident of a baboon “cub-napping” a lion cub, and grooming it on a tree branch. And it was not even a female baboon! 

Kurt Schultz, the director of the Kurt Safari company, stopped over to take some photos at the Kruger National Park, before heading over to a meeting. What he saw astounded him. He was alert enough to capture it on video and photos, a young male baboon carrying a lion cub across a road and climbing up a tree with the stolen baby. Then, surprisingly, the young baboon started grooming the lion cub, similarly to caring for it like a mother would care for their young. First of all, baboons and lions are mortal enemies. Secondly, this is not a typical mannerism of a male baboon. So what gives? Many who saw the photos and video on social media compared it to Disney’s animated film, The Lion King.

Schultz knows that baboons kill young lion and leopard cubs. But sometimes, the unexpected happens. It was the first time for him to witness a baboon caring for a lion cub. We can only wonder why the baboon did what he did. Surely another miracle of the wilderness we still have to comprehend.