First-Ever Photos Show Wild Lion Nursing Leopard Cub
While the photos are undeniably cute, an expert says the strange pairing might not end well.
So it was quite surprising when a five-year-old lioness was seen nursing a weeks-old leopard cub recently in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
“It’s unprecedented,” says Luke Hunter, president and chief conservation officer for Panthera, a global wild cat nonprofit. “We never see this in the wild.”
It’s unclear exactly how the lion and the leopard came into contact, or where the leopard’s true mother might be, but for now, Hunter says it seems as though the lioness’s aggressive instincts have taken a back seat to her maternal ones. (See "A Lioness Killing a Leopard Cub Floored These Filmmakers.")
You see, this female lion, known as Nosikitok, also has a few cubs of her own hidden in the bush. What’s
