A Lion's Act Of Motherly Love Saves A Baby Baboon's Life

Life in the wild is not easy. Animals face dangers from humans as well as other predators higher up on the food chain. But one simple act of love reminds us that not all of nature is red in tooth and claw.

A lioness in Botswana did what lionesses do: she went hunting. And she was successful. She caught herself a female baboon. But not just any baboon. No, this one has a little baby in a nearby tree. What happened next is astounding.

The lioness, perhaps a mother herself, went to the baby and began to care for it, picking it up by the back of his neck as she would with one of her own cubs and snuggling with him. Eventually, when the opportunity arose, a male baboon (possibly the father) was able to sneak in and retrieve the young one while the lioness was scaring off two male lions.

It's important to remember that lions and baboons are wild animals, and particularly aggressive ones at that. But the tenderness that both the lioness and the male baboon showed the baby are astounding.

See the sequence of events in these amazing photos from National Geographic, courtesy of photographer Evan Schiller.