Photographer Gordon Donovan recorded the stunning image of a lioness hugging an antelope.
The lioness is seen licking the newborn antelope and keeping it in a protective attitude, as if protecting it from harm.
When a couple of lions arrived in quest of food, she defended it.
‘It was an unusual but lovely sight to witness,’ Mr Donovan added. I was really thrilled for the lions, and I was watching and thinking that she will not keep baby alive when she got the springbok.”
“However, it never arrived and began washing the calf. It’s nature’s strange method of keeping us guessing as to what will occur next.
“She then went out of her way to defend her adoptive springbok babies from other lions.” When I visit Africa, I search for moments like this.”
While exploring the pride in Namibia’s Etosha National Park, the photographer saw an unsettling scene that lasted more than two hours.
The lionesses were obviously part of a pride that had been taken by a new male, and the dominant male ki.l.led lionesses.
Although antelope is a main source of food for lionesses, that one seems to cherish it as if it were one of her kids.
