A professional safari tour guide who spent years photographing animals in their natural habitat has caught on camera what appears to be a real-life Simba and Rafiki scene from The Lion King.
While the iconic scene from the Disney classic sure appears sweet, Kurt Schultz explained that the true story behind baboons carrying lion cubs on top of rocks and trees is much darker than what we saw in the movie.
As Mr. Schultz explained, he had seen plenty of male baboons carry tiny lion cubs up the trees or boulders in South Africa’s Kruger National Park only for the primates to throw them to their death.
In a recent incident, the tour guide witnessed a large group of monkeys gathering beneath the tree on which a baboon has taken a lion cub.
“The baboon was grooming the little lion cub as if it was a baby baboon… The males do a lot of grooming but the care given… was the same care given by a female to one of her own young,” he said.
“In 20 years of guiding southern and east Africa, I have witnessed baboons viciously killing leopard cubs and have heard of baboons killing lion cubs. But I have never seen the care and attention given to a lion cub in this manner. This will remain one of my most interesting sightings.”
While Shultz had to move on with his group after seeing the epic moment, he believes that the cub most likely didn’t survive the encounter with primates which allegedly took the lion from the baboon after the tour group moved on.
“The troop of baboons was large and a lion would not be able to get the young back. Nature is cruel at most times and survival of young predator cubs is not easy. The lion cub poses a threat to the baboons when it gets older,” he added.
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