Lioness cares for baby antelope

[Liquid Blue]

http://www.douglas-hamilton.com/films/lioness/index.htm

Although both animals were on the brink of starvation it was hard to predict which of the two might die first, as the odds were stacked against them both. The calf was utterly reliant on the lioness for protection against predators, but its captive state and association with a lioness deprived it of its sole food source – its mother’s milk. The lioness seemed to have formed such a strong attachment to the calf that she would not leave its side, and since the calf was on an incessant search for its mother and milk the lioness was forced to follow, which in turn prevented her from hunting.

..The baby oryx would follow the adults, and the lioness would give chase using all her predator tactics to recapture it. Oryx calf and lioness would rejoin, the lioness rubbing her head gently down its body... the oryx, gangle-legged, nibbling softly on the lioness' ear.

Local Kenyans from the lodges and around the park arrived in droves to see for themselves a legend in the making. Tourists, sunburnt and dehydrated, were moved to tears. Everyone wanted to do something to help the unlikely pair, and the Warden of Samburu Reserve was under great pressure from every quarter to feed the lioness artificially to keep her alive. Some Kenyans felt that "mungu amefika" god has arrived, or that "dunia ataisha" the world is coming to an end. Even as a scientist my mind kept wandering off into bibilical parable - and the lion shall lay down with the lamb.

It's quite a sad ending but an interesting story none the less.

Last thread, I promise.

[Superted]

People standing around watching 2 animals die, what a world.

[Sarien]

Yeah, people standing around watching an animal die. It's called nature.

I think it's also known as "How the world works."

Feeding either or both even if they'd survived would have been in the long run, a very bad thing.

[Superted]

So we're not a part of nature?

[SaucyKing]

"Aww, how cute, animals dying. Let's watch and cry and not actually do anything to help."

[Sarien]

There is a natural order. These are wild animals, and not your pet in your yard. It might seem cold-hearted but that's the reality of it. Human interference in such situations only brings about larger problems. That's why when they catch a wild animal that makes it into a town or something. They release it back into the wild, instead of just taking it to a zoo and keeping it.

The lioness didn't die, and it's pretty much a miracle that the onyx survived as long as it did. It isn't a television show with a happy ending. It's real life. Respecting the natural order and letting natural events take their course is a rather large part of ecology.

[cundor]

I don't see any problems in helping two starving animals....really

[Liquid Blue]

Well they have to learn how to get food on their own, if people just kept giving them food they would end up using these handouts as a crutch and eventually die in the wild. Sure you feed them for a day, or a week, but you will leave eventually. What will happen then? The animals will be so used to handouts that their hunting/foraging skills will be dulled and thus starve eventually anyway, or get killed by another animal in the wild.