Lioness That Spots Abandoned Baby Leopard Makes A Move Experts Can’t Explain

Some things just don’t go together: orange juice and toothpaste, a fork and a power outlet, a full glass of red wine and a pristine white couch. It’s just the way of life. And this is no different in the animal kingdom. You don’t often see rival species hanging out together over a cup of coffee.

Which is why experts at India’s Gir National Park were concerned when they saw a fierce lioness approaching a baby leopard. Holding their collective breath, they could only watch as the mama cat made a move they couldn’t really explain.

Dr. Stotra Chakrabarti, an animal behaviorist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota, has spent the last seven years or so studying Gir National Park’s lion population. It was all business as usual, until one particular lioness stood out from the rest.

Stotra Chakrabarti / ResearchGate

See, over the course of his studies, Dr. Chakrabarti got used to watching the lions constantly compete with the leopards for space and food, despite the fact that the park spans 545 square miles.

But in 2019, Dr. Chakrabarti noticed something peculiar about one lioness’ intentions regarding a blue-eyed baby leopard. She approached the baby in a rather gentle way. Was she sneaking up on the little one?

Dheeraj Mittal

What began as a mere interest soon became an interspecies adoption, as the lioness’ maternal instincts kicked in once she was around the fuzzy, two-month-old leopard cub. This contradicted seven years of research — and got Dr. Chakrabarti thinking.

Dheeraj Mittal

He expected that the odd curiosity would be short-lived, as a lioness in Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area was once seen nursing a leopard cub, but the miraculous encounter only lasted about a day. They just weren’t meant to be family.

But the lioness at Gir National Park spent weeks protecting and nursing the leopard cub, even feeding him fresh meat from her hunt. Absolutely fascinated, Dr. Chakrabarti wondered what the long-term effects would be on the leopard.

Dheeraj Mittal

Well, the lioness’s two cubs showed the leopard baby the same love and affection as well. The siblings were seen playing together, with the two lion cubs, who were about twice the size of the leopard, even following the spotty adoptee up trees.

Amitayu Dey

Adorably, a photo shows the brave little leopard pouncing on the head of one of his new, larger, golden-hued brothers, who sweetly played along with the leopard cub’s shenanigans. The good sport clearly knew the role of a big brother and the annoyances that come with it!

“It looked like two big cubs and one tiny runt of the litter,” Dr. Stotra Chakrabarti stated of the inter-species siblings. The doctor and his fellow researchers were still in awe of the improbable wild cat family. Surely, this would change the very makeup of the leopard.

Jessica Wade / The World-Herald

Dr. Chakrabarti stated that the bizarre affiliation “was surely the most ‘wow’ moment I’ve come across.” His fellow researchers, some of whom have observed the wild cats for decades, were astounded too and admitted they had “also not seen anything like this.”

There are quite a few animal friendship stories dispersed throughout the world of Facebook, but it’s almost unheard of for wild competitors to bond so easily. But perhaps it was their feline similarities that brought them together.

Dr. Chakrabarti explained that both big cat species’ social behaviors are quite similar in the early stages of life, such as the way they play, meow, and beg for milk. As they age, their traits diverge, of course.

Considering Asiatic lion mamas often separate from their pride for a few months to raise their newborn cubs alone, acting as tough single mothers, it makes sense that this particular Asiatic lioness was so welcoming to the leopard cub.

Chen Jianxing

If the rest of the pride, which is made up of uber-protective adult lions, were around to witness the leopard cub cuddling up to the lioness, they may have viewed the spotty outcast as an “impostor,” Stotra explained.

Ken and Michelle Dyball

But that theory was never tested, and sadly it never will be; after approximately 45 days spent under the care of his adoptive lioness mother, the leopard cub was found lifeless by a watering hole.

Paul A. Selvaggio

According to a field necropsy, the little leopard likely passed due to a femoral hernia he was born with. The researchers were heartbroken (as you probably are) over the fact that they’d never know how his life would’ve panned out among the lions.

Richard Brodzeller

“It would have been fantastic to see, when the leopard cub grew up, how things would be. But it didn’t happen,” said a somber Dr. Stotra. He was bummed from a scientific opportunistic standpoint, but was also undoubtedly emotionally attached to the unlikely feline family.

@StotraChakraba2 / Twitter

With the feline case specifically, it wasn’t too difficult to imagine the cat camaraderie helping the leopard cub seamlessly meld with the lion clan. Both species are from the felidae family! It’s not as easy to understand interspecies relationship when they are completely different.

Considering hormonal changes caused by new motherhood are quite powerful, they “might facilitate bonding with an extraneous infant,” explained Patrícia. Nature and biology continue to amaze and bewilder us, just when we thought we had it all figured out.

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