Lioness Momma Adopts Sick Baby Leopard And Raises As Her Own

Lions and leopards at the Gir National Park don’t usually get on. “They compete with each other” for space and food, said Stotra Chakrabarti, a researcher who studies animal behaviour. “They are at perpetual odds.” And until recently, this statement wouldn’t have been questioned. But one particular lion, against all odds, broke the barrier when she adopted a baby leopard.

The female had two cubs of her own, but she treated the leopard as if he were a member of the family. Examples of cross-species adoption in the wild are rare, and this particular case is the only documented example involving animals that are normally strong competitors. Other examples of interspecies adoption include a group of capuchin monkeys who took in an infant marmoset in 2004, and a family of bottlenose dolphins who fostered a baby melon-headed whale in 2014. The authors first spotted the unlikely pair in late December 2018, when they were seen hanging out near a freshly killed nilgai antelope. The team initially thought the relationship would be brief, and they were surprised when it continued.