Male baboon 'steals' lion cub at Kruger National Park

Published Feb 3, 2020

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Johannesburg - For 10 years Kurt Schultz walked the length and breath of the Kruger National Park seeing animals in their habitat getting up to no good.

However, even for someone who has seen a lot, what he recently saw left him baffled: A male baboon that "stole" a lion cub from its pride while foraging for food then taking it up a tree to groom it.

It was the strangest thing he had even seen and to prove to everyone he would later tell about that sighting that he was not making that up, Schultz took a video as proof and it has gone viral on social media.

In the video, the adult baboon can be seen sitting in a tree with the cub.

It tucks the cub under its arm to leap between branches before sitting down to comb through its fur with its fingers.

Speaking to JacarandaFm's Martin Bester, Schultz said what he saw was the best and the strangest sighting of his life. 

He said they first thought that the cub was dead but realised that it was alive.

Prompted by Bester who wanted to know whether the baboon's intention was to raise that cub, Schultz said he did not know the intention.

However, he said, the baboon was male and would not know how to raise that cub.

"It would have not been possible," he said.

"I've never seen a baboon grooming a lion cub," he said.

He said he left after an hour and did not know what happened to the cub.

"I am not sure where the lion cub is now, I had to move on."

According to Schultz that was the strangest sighting of his life. He said people keep asking him what this best sighting is and has never been able to say because there have been so many but so far this is it.

IOL

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