While visiting the Madikwe Game reserve in South Africa, the 33-year-old photographer witnessed a lioness eating an African antelope. The lion had bitten the antelope’s stomach, it was lying on the ground slowly enjoying its meal.
Suddenly the lion realized there was something in the prey’s stomach, it used strong teeth to pull out a young antelope. It turned out that its prey was pregnant. Photographer Gerry Van Der Walt and 4 tourists in a car of the reserve hold their breath and wait for the lion’s next action.
The lioness appeared confused, she rubbed her nose against the young antelope on the ground to check if the cub was still alive. Sniffing for a long time, it discovered that the young antelope had stopped breathing.
The lioness did not return to eat, her body language clearly showing her instability. It also seems to feel remorse for its behavior. The lion cautiously carried the young antelope to a bush and then collapsed on the ground and fell asleep, after which it also left without eating the mother and the baby antelope.
This behavior of the lioness is not common for her species, other lions often just ignore and continue to eat even though the prey is pregnant. Photographer Gerry and the tourists seemed to be dumbfounded by the lion’s reaction, whether its motherly instincts spoke out in this situation