Lioness in a nursing image like no other
Luke Hunter, president and chief conservation officer of the global wild cat organisation Panthera, received an email this week from one of his group’s partners in Tanzania. When he opened the attached photos, Hunter recalled, “my jaw just dropped”.
The images show a lioness lounging on a flat, dry spot in the Serengeti. Attached to her is a nursing cub — and the cub is a tiny, spotted leopard.
This is the sort of sighting that is pretty much mind- blowing to lion experts like Hunter. Interspecies suckling has been documented among captive animals, and on very rare occasions wild carnivores such as leopards and pumas have been known to adopt an orphaned cub of their own kind, usually one that is related.
But never before has interspecies suckling among large carnivores been recorded, Hunter said ( and he checked the literature).
“It’s unprecedented,” he said, almost gushing. “It’s a once- in- alifetime event.”
The photos were taken on Tuesday by a guest at the Ndutu Lodge in the Ngorogoro Conservation Area, where KopeLion, which Panthera supports, works on quelling conflicts between lions and local farmers whose livestock sometimes become lion lunch. KopeLion monitors the area lions, which is why the nursing mum in the photos is wearing a GPS collar.
The lioness is known as Nosikitok, and, importantly, she i s known to have given birth to three cubs of her own in late June. That means “she is absolutely awash with maternal hormones and that instinct to take care of her own babies”, Hunter said. “This simply wouldn’t have happened if she wasn’t suckling her own babies.”
Typically, he elaborated, a lioness would kill a baby leopard. That’s because the baby, while very small and terribly adorable, is just another meat- eating competitor in a wild, sometimes severe world.
“Lions kind of go out of their way to get rid of them,” he said.
But Nosikitok’s hormones hardly explain everything about this peaceful encounter, Hunter said.
For one, it’s unclear where the leopard cub’s mother was or whether she is alive.
Also unknown i s whether Nosikitok’s own cubs were safe in their den, less than a kilometre away, or whether she’s already lost them to predators, starvation or other common lion cub killers.
As of yesterday, her collar positioned her neither in the den where her own cubs might be nor in the spot where she fed the leopard cub.
This story, however, isn’t likely to have a happy ending for the wee leopard, which Hunter said appears to be about 3 weeks old.
Lionesses break away from their prides to give birth, then usually introduce new cubs to the family when they’re about 8 weeks old — if the little ones make it to that age, Hunter said.
On the very off- chance Nosikitok decided to adopt the spotted babe and managed to keep it alive long enough to take it home, her crew probably would not be so welcoming.
“That would be the most fascinating encounter to observe,” Hunter said. But, he added: “I would love for this to end nicely. But I think the challenges facing the little leopard cub are formidable.”
Greens leader Richard Di Natale said he was devastated at the news, but Senator Ludlam’s decision to deal with the issue directly and immediately showed his integrity and character.
“Scott has been an outstanding member of the Parliament and of the Greens,” he said in a statement.
“He has been a strong representative for the people of WA and the nation on a range of issues.
“He will continue to be a champion of the Greens movement and a dear friend.”
University student Jordon SteeleJohn has been touted the frontrunner to take the vacant seat.
Steele- John, who has cerebral palsy, had to give up his British citizenship to run for Parliament in 2013.
The 21- year- old said there were a number of processes to get through before he even thinks about accepting a role in Parliament.
“Like everyone else in the party I’m going to be spending the next week in sad shock and/ or swearing loudly into a pillow,” he posted on Facebook.
“We can worry about who, and how the hell we try to substitute someone else in for Scott later. The next few weeks will be hard for us all. But we will get through it, together.”
Ludlam i s the fourth senator to leave the upper house this parliamentary term.
Bob Day and Rod Culleton were both ruled ineligible for constitutional reasons, while Liberal senator Chris Back resigned.
Scott Ludlam