News Briefs for the Week of March 10, 2002
By Marcella Durand for Cat Facts
- Lioness Adopts Baby Antelope
In Samburu National Reserve in Kenya, a lioness shocked staff workers when she adopted a baby oryx -- which are similar to antelopes -- after scaring off its mother. For more than two weeks, the lioness protected the oryx calf from cheetahs, leopards, and other predators. Even more amazingly, she allowed the calf’s mother to nurse him from time to time.
Sadly, when the lioness fell asleep after leading the calf to a river to drink, another lion killed him -- not, after all, such a strange thing for lions, who usually regard oryx as tasty dinners with hooves. Patrick Muriungi, a receptionist at the Samburu Lodge, recalls that the lioness was furious at the lion afterward. “She went around the lion about 10 times, roaring,” he says. Perhaps the strangest part of all is that the lioness was starving at the time she discovered the calf. Staff members at the reserve are now debating whether or not to interfere with Mother Nature and feed this unusual feline themselves.
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