Lioness Nurses Baby Leopard in Unique Act of Love

‘It’s not something that I’m aware has ever happened before between large cats like this,’ Dr Luke Hunter, President and Chief Conservation Officer for global cat conservation organisation Panthera said.

‘We know there are cases where lionesses will adopt other lion cubs… But this is unprecedented.

‘I know of no other case – between any large cat, for that matter – where the species has adopted or nursed the cub of another species.’

Dr Hunter described lionesses as ‘formidable mums’ who are both very fierce and protective. Because Nosikitok had recently given birth to her own cubs Dr Hunter said she would be ‘absolutely awash with maternal hormones and that instinct to take care of her own babies’.

‘This incredible act of motherly love simply wouldn’t have happened if she wasn’t suckling her own babies’, he said.