When you celebrate your birthday in the Kruger National Park, you naturally expect an out-of-the-ordinary gift. One birthday girl’s wish came true with a somewhat puzzling wildlife sighting. Why exactly did this lioness kill a young baboon? By Arnold Ras
Driving from Kruger’s Crocodile Bridge towards Lower Sabie early one morning, Wild Card traveller Charmane Baleiza heard the deafening alarm calls of a troop of baboons. She was on the H4-2, shortly after the S130 turnoff, so stopped her vehicle to see what was the cause. She noticed a lioness crossing the road right behind her, on the way to the river.
“Judging by her enlarged pupils and tail flicking, she was clearly agitated by the noise coming from the nearby tree. She started calling, either for cubs or another lion, but looking at her teats, I definitely thought cubs. While grooming, she kept watching the baboons with great irritation. She made a few mock charges until the noisy baboons kept quiet,” says Charmane.
Pictures by Charmane Baleiza.
Although the lioness disappeared momentarily, Charmane knew the primates were very aware of the big cat’s exact location. She decided to wait.
Enough is enough
“The next moment, a relatively young baboon sprinted across the road in front of my car, with the lioness in full pursuit. As the baboon frantically jumped for the tree next to my car, the lioness grabbed it mid-air. As they say, the rest was history.”
But the chilling spectacle was far from over…
According to Charmane, the lioness at no stage attempted to sink her teeth into the baboon. “She tried to break the baboon’s neck, but because it was fighting back so intensely, and even trying to stick a finger in her eye, she opted for its back. I must state: there was no violence. Her main objective was to break the neck, alternatively the back. My impression was that she wanted to silence the baboon, to end its screaming – all this with no violence. If you look at the photos, you’ll note that her paws are relaxed with no nails extended.”
Now what?
Lioness kills baboon, lioness eats baboon. Right? Wrong.
“After the baboon stopped moving, something very strange happened. The cat seemed disgusted; trying to not only to remove the baboon’s hair from her mouth, but also its smell. All was suddenly dead quiet. What had just happened?”
After the kill, the lioness rested a few seconds. Then, while looking at Charmane, the big cat threw the baboon in the air, caught it, took it a few metres away and played with it for some seconds. “The lioness then left the scene, never to return. There wasn’t a baboon in sight, only the singing of birds as the sun came up.
“I passed by there in the afternoon and the baboon was still lying there – untouched, in the grass. No other predator touched it.
“The whole ordeal between the baboon and lioness lasted about 20 minutes, but felt like a lifetime. I remember wishing the baboon would just give up.”
Your thoughts?
Was the lioness trying to protect cubs by killing the baboon to create a diversion? As the baboons made it difficult for her to hunt in the area, was the killing her way of scaring the rest of the noisy tribe away?
We would love to know what you think.
Also read: Sylvester the lion’s new life in Addo
As a mother trying to “have a relax” in the bush after looking after the kids, I guess enough is enough. I would have done the same to shut them up. I am surprised however that no other animals or birds devoured the carcass.
It is the scent of the lion on the baboon preventing other to devour the carcass
I think she wanted to say be quiet – my babies are sleeping and I need to catch up on my loss of sleep. I have been in that area twice and not been so lucky. Thank you Charmaine for sharing.
How about the option that she was potentially trying to maime the baboon in order to bring it back for her cubs to learn how to kill prey? This would depend on the age of her cubs though. She also would see them as a threat so that is a very real possibility too
I assume the following.
Lions do eat baboons occasionally.
However, I can only assume the lioness was probable not hungry but more agitated by the baboon.
Baboons tend to tease lions and annoy them as they quickly run up a tree to safety.
I think the lioness was trying to make a statement in front of the baboon troop.
The Lioness saw an opportunity and quickly took it.However the Lioness was agitated and after catching the baboon was not sure what to do with it. Out of instinct, he tried to kill it than rather eat it. Then played with it showing he was in charge not the baboon.
Perhaps the baboon was sick/carrying a disease and once the lioness realised this refused to eat it-could explain why no other animal touched it either?
It is well known that many mothers sacrifice their lives to save the life of their puppies. It happened to me in Italy, where I live, to attend the sacrifice of a hare in order to save her litter from a fox which was about to discover her den. Show of a moving courage.
I have come to the conclusion that sometimes Lions kill because they can… having said this I’ve witnessed a few times where Lions have killed either a meerkat, pigeon or mouse.
In each of these observed incidents, I watched the members of the pride play with the carcass for some time before finally rejecting it, the uneaten carcass was then left to rot.
That is distinctive cat behavior-to play with its pray after killing it-even the smallest house cat does that.
The baboon is simply a pest to the lioness… 🙂
sad the monkey was making a noise but also was scared of the lion who was on the hunt and did not like the loud noise monkeys make when threatened.
My guess is that since she is lactating her maternal instincts are strong. Chasing and catching was again instinct. But once she’d caught it, especially as it is a young baboon, she didn’t want to kill it, so didn’t bite. Baboons are not their natural prey anyway. Like you said, she just wanted to silence it and when she did that, she left it.
I have witnessed a baboon killing a steenbok but it was out of hunger during the drought—I would suggest that this killing by the lioness of a baboon was to scare the troop off due to her having cubs —it will be interesting to hear an experts reasoning.
She’s lactating and so her maternal instincts are strong. She chased and caught the baboon by instinct because he ran in front of her. And then she tried to silence him but didn’t want to eat him. Baboons are not her natural prey anyway. Interesting that she wasn’t mobbed by the parliament of baboons (serious: that’s what it’s called) as any leopard would surely have been.
She was surely protecting her family!
Incredible encounter – thanks for detailing it. I think some wilderness guides would be equally interested to know it’s personal meaning for you. Did anything about the event mirror anything in your life in particular that you could identify with or find meaning in? It just seems a little uncanny that such an episode would play out in your birthday in this special way. As for the lioness’ intentions, acting out of annoyance/ frustration, family protection. disciplining “teaching a lesson” all seem plausible. Presumably something in the baboon’s alarm calls triggered the response.
No, the event did not mirror anything in my life neither can I identify with any of the happenings I observed that day.
Since I can remember I have always visited the Kruger National Park during the week of my birthday!
For many years now my most spectacular sightings have always been on my birthday and I can only hope, trust and believe that it will continue in the future!
Due to the line of cars waiting to enter the Kruger Park at Crocodile Bridge, as it was free entry week, camp gates were opened a few minutes earlier that morning. The lions at the Vurhumi Bridge area caused heavy traffic both at the dam and on the road that particular week and I decided not to stop that particular morning but continued on to Lower Sabie.
If all these things did not take place, I would most probably have missed it or there would have been so many vehicles that I would not have been able to take the photos I did. When the lioness left for the second time, vehicles from both Crocodile Bridge and Lower Sabie started arriving at the scene.
I suppose that is the Kruger motto – Right place right time. (Unfortunately not for the young baboon)
Possibly rabid, if not with other baboons?
Hi, no there were plenty of baboons in all the trees, this guy was a lookout, in the same area where she went to check for her cubs (I believe) and must have thought the lioness had gone, This baboon came stolling through the bushes if the world belonged to him! The other baboons moved into the dry river area trees, still making alarm but this baboon really thought he had it covered, until the lioness came at top speed, they both crossed the road infront of me and as the baboon jumped for the tree the lioness took him down.
I think the irritation of the baboons and the sudden movement of the baboon made her use the opportunity. Lions react on movement.
Excellent photography
Beautifully captured Charmane! I would also like to think that she was protecting her offspring.
There is no reason. Why do people want to add human emotions to animals? Lion kill for the sake of killing and not only for food. Had your two year old kid been outside it would have been killed and eaten or not eaten-there is no pattern or reason in lion behaviour.
Many historical instances exist of lion jumping into a cattle kraal and kill ten or more, and leave without further touching a single carcass.
I think she just wanted to play, caught the baboon and played with it got some reaction, but unfortunately she killed it, not by choice, but rather by her uncontrollable strength and excitement. Reason why she started throwing it up in the air was to get a reaction, however when that wasn’t forthcoming she got bored, dropped it and left, very disappointed with the baboon for not wanting to play.
Predator is a predator, opportunity knocked….
I agree with Andries Marais and Pino Montalto. Cats kill because they can and play because they want to.
I’m of the belief that no animal kills for the sake of killing. I think that they will all kill to protect themselves and their young, or obviously for food.
In this case, I think the lookout had seen where the Lionesses cubs were, and the Lioness felt that they were under threat. This would make the lioness defend. I don’t think that she had ever caught a baboon before and as such was unsure of how to kill it and as such appeared to be trying to break the back … Once she succeeded, she wanted to display that it was dead to the rest of the baboon troop. I would love to know if the baboon troop carted off the carcass the next day, as this is sometimes done?
She may well have had young cups she was hiding nearby, and the barking of the baboons could attract attention to her – something she would want to avoid.