Newborn lion cubs! Because they are immature, to keep them safe, they are raised in a hidden area away from the Pride for a month In fact, the survival rate for lion cubs before 2 years old is only 20%. And there comes a huge elephant attacking these 5 lion cubs.
Are they able to survive? And what will their mother do to her dying son? This is a story of a lion family in a severe wild world.
Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. 5 days ago, we caught the news of new lion cubs. These are the 5 lion cubs.
They are only 5 days old and about 1 kilogram. Because they are immature the mother raises them in a hidden area away from her pride for a month. They are crying out loud for the breasts.
The mother has only 4 nipples, so those 5 cubs have to compete. After the fuss, it’s time for a nap. And the rest, they are sleeping.
The mother seems sleepy too… It was a peaceful afternoon. But in the evening, the mother became nervous when elephants appeared in the acacia forest. African elephants love acacia.
They smash and break the thick branches taking big bites regardless of the sharp thorns on the tree. The mother pays close attention to the young male elephant. Soon this young elephant starts showing off his strength.
The elephant is going to attack the cubs. There is no time to waste. The mother puts the cubs in her mouth and take them out.
The cubs cannot walk straight yet so the mother has to take them one by one. She tries to calm down and looks for some place safe. But the elephant is still on the rampage and 4 cubs are left alone.
She needs to hurry. As the elephant approaches the cubs, they run around to escape. While the mother keeps her eyes on the elephant, she rescues the cubs one by one.
After she finally replace 3 of them she saw the elephant leaving the acacia forest. However, she find one cub was seriously injured. The mother runs up to him and holds him tight.
She licks the blood on his body and encourages him. And look at what happened. The cub starts crying out loud.
But the cub was in a serious condition. As far as I can tell, his spine is broken. Probably the internal organs, too.
Unfortunately, he won’t survive. The mother makes a weird face. This expression is called the flehmen response where animals open up their mouth and nose to study the smell.
Does she know that the cub will not survive? The next action that she took was unexpected. She couldn’t stand watching her baby dying?
The cub passed away peacefully. Then something unexpected happened. If she left the cub, it would draw the attention of the other carnivores and put the other 4 cubs in danger.
It was the mother’s decision to save the other 4 cubs. That night. The mother went out to search one missing cub.
The forest in the dark. When she approaches the old hideout, she finds jackals wandering around. There are hyenas as well.
The lion cubs are easy food for them. She needs to find the cub before them. But the search wasn’t easy.
The lost cub was the biggest among five and he got far away. Where did he go? She worries about the other 3 cubs left in the new hideout.
She cannot leave them alone too long. Around 2 am, she stopped searching and got back to the hideout. Next morning, As soon as the cubs awake, they run to the mother’s breasts.
They couldn’t drink enough milk last night due to the elephant’s attack, so they are hungry! The lost cub is crying out loud for the mother. He is starving.
After feeding, the mother looks for the missing cub again. This low pitched cry is the one the mother is looking for her kids. She keeps searching.
Then, The voice of the cub. The mother heads toward where the voice is coming from, while she keeps crying! The two voices meet in the bush.
It’s been 22 hours since they last saw each other. And for the first time in his life, he has the milk all to himself! But then the mother left the cub alone and took off.
The cub became alone again. Why did she leave him? The mother smelled the elephant on that missing cub when she found him.
When elephants are on the rampage, they spit humours with a certain smell. In my experience, lions hate this smell and occasionally they attack their own family. That’s why this cub cannot stay with others.
From this day, the mother became busy twice as much as before. She takes care of 3 cubs in the hideout, and she runs up to the lonely cub. She’s decided to raise them by going back and forth between 2 locations.
No matter what, I will protect these 4 kids. This is the mother’s decision.
