Amazing Lioness and a Calf

[MA-Caver]

Just got done watching the latter half of an amazing program on Animal Planet (not sure where to put this thread). The show was called "The Heart Of A Lioness". It talked about Kenyan lions and their lives on the african plains but focused on one lone lioness and her incredible attachment to an Oryx calf. I missed how the two got together but their lives which lasted 15 incredible days until tragedy struck has now become legend among the villagers in the area.
For some reason the lioness adopted this calf which is normally food and kept it safe from other predators. The big cat refused to eat and could do nothing but protect the calf because it's own mother was nowhere to be found. The calf had suckled and was living on that.
The game warden of the park in which the two lived was under tremendous pressure to interviene. Ironically these were the same people who have had problems with lions killing their livestock of goats. The warden came out one evening and tossed a large chunk of meat to the lioness and although she was starving she refused to eat it.
This amazing story however ends tragically when weak from hunger the lioness laid down to rest and the calf wandered off far-enough to be grabbed by a male lion. The lioness followed but not too closely. She was too afraid to do anything for the calf, weak as she was surely the male would've killed her too.
Over a year later (?) the lioness was seen to have adopted 5 more oryx calves. 1 died from starvation and the others escaped and 1 of those returned to it's mother. Soon after the last adoption the lioness disappeared and hasn't been seen again.

This tale really is amazing in that this particular (prideless) lioness turned "nature on it's head" and defied all laws of predator and prey. The show went on to say that scientists will be baffled for years on this. I myself don't know quite what to make of it. I'm sadden that it ended the way that it did but it is nature and it is part of the cycle of birth and death and survival.

Still....

Did anyone else happen to catch this program? Hopefully it'll be re-runned soon. If it is please catch it... you'll be amazed and wondered just as I was. :asian:
(thoughts? comments?)

 

[bydand]

Didn't see it, but will have to keep my eyes open for it. Sounds like an interesting show.

 

[exile]

This kind of thing strongly suggests that animal emotionality is more complex than what you would assume from the usual neo-behaviorist accounts. People who want to be taken seriously have become leery of being charged with anthropomorphizing animal psychology, and in the Walt Disney era, there's something to be said for going out of your way to resist that temptation. But we still don't have a very good handle on the cognitive capabilities of nonhuman species, and our understanding of their `affect' is still more underdeveloped. So when you see the kind of thing MA-C refers to here, you get the feeling that it's a pointer to a mental capability in this species that we don't yet have a good model of...

 

[bluemtn]

Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to watch much of it. What I did see was just enough to get that she adopted the oryx, but that was about it. I'll have to make sure to watch it when it's on again!

 

[MA-Caver]

This kind of thing strongly suggests that animal emotionality is more complex than what you would assume from the usual neo-behaviorist accounts. People who want to be taken seriously have become leery of being charged with anthropomorphizing animal psychology, and in the Walt Disney era, there's something to be said for going out of your way to resist that temptation. But we still don't have a very good handle on the cognitive capabilities of nonhuman species, and our understanding of their `affect' is still more underdeveloped. So when you see the kind of thing MA-C refers to here, you get the feeling that it's a pointer to a mental capability in this species that we don't yet have a good model of...

Well the lioness in question was still relatively immature in that she hadn't been breeding and was suffering from a traumatic "loss" of her own pride, then found this oryx and simply adopted it. The oryx calf was said that it may have lost it's mother before it had time to "imprint" it's own species. After the calf died the lioness "exhibited behavior like one that lost a cub" (which they frequently do when an outsider male chases off the dominate male of the pride... they'll kill all the cubs so that the females become ready to mate again). This lioness however still hadn't reached that stage in her life to become a breeding female. So speculation is that she was just trying to fill in the gap of the loss of her pride which happened suddenly.

Wished I caught the show from the beginning.
Very fascinating and just amazing to watch.

Fair warning the ending isn't very happy or pleasant to watch. So unless you want to have your kids see the true brutality of nature ... I wouldn't advise (smaller) kids to watch it, dispite it's "awwww" factor.

 

[exile]

MA-C—yes, no question the situation was one where there were familiar and complementary needs from both species. But what fascinates me is that both animals were able to overcome whatever `hard-wired' recognition patterns each embodies—prey species for identification of predator characteristics and vice versa—in order to allow the other (definitely mismatched!) individual to fulfil their respective programmed needs. It may well be that there's much less specificity in that hard-wiring (e.g., about what predators look like, smell like, act like, etc., or about what to do immediately (e.g., run like hell) as soon as you see one) than a lot of people have believed, and that much more of that sort of thing is learning-dependent than previously thought... it's so wonderful how the natural world keeps coming up with these major surprises, eh?

 

[zDom]

Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to watch much of it. What I did see was just enough to get that she adopted the oryx, but that was about it. I'll have to make sure to watch it when it's on again!

Same here.

I'm glad for this post: I was wondering if the lioness had really "adopted" the oryx or was just waiting till it fattened up to devour it later.


Reminds of the prophecy about the lion laying down with the lamb. Doesn't seem so far-fetched, now

 

[MA-Caver]

Same here.

I'm glad for this post: I was wondering if the lioness had really "adopted" the oryx or was just waiting till it fattened up to devour it later.

The lioness was observed for the entire 15 days the two were together... both of them were starving because the calf had no milk and the lioness refused to leave it alone to go hunt. It also refused a chunk of meat left by the game warden one evening, dispite her great hunger. The two went down to a waterhole to drink (shade temps were 110 degrees) and then shortly afterwards the calf was killed by a male lion when the weakened/starving lioness laid down to rest. She clearly wanted to go help but was frightened by the sheer presence of the male and obviously she was aware enough of her own body's weakness from starvation that she knew she would've been killed. So self-preservation took over, but her actions afterwards were similar to a mother lion that lost a cub.
The next day the lioness killed and ate a warthog... so go figure that one out.

Reminds of the prophecy about the lion laying down with the lamb. Doesn't seem so far-fetched, now

Yes, the same idea come to me as well. The ironies of nature are still shrouded in mystery. But it is a lesson we all can learn that even mortal enemies can reside together in peace.

 

[Ceicei]

Here is another interesting relationship between different species, #63 out of 99 at this link, http://www.wftv.com/slideshow/news/2691965/detail.html?qs=;s=63;w=480--. This link was supplied by MA-Caver in a different thread about the lobster. I browsed that link out of curiosity and saw this one. Makes one wonder about the nature of animal behavior.

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The snake and the hamster live together in the same cage and have done so apparently for the past few months.