Lion and Lamb lie down together in Kenya! (my title)

DailyNation on the Web ^ | January 7, 2002 | MUGUMO MUNENE

[Sabertooth]

	| The East African |
Front Page News Business Commentary Letters Sports Cutting Edge Editorial cartoon  Obituaries		News  Monday, January 7, 2002  Surprise in the Kenyan wild as lioness adopts oryx The oryx and the lioness walk next to each other more like the Bible says: And the lamb and the lion shall lie together. By MUGUMO MUNENE  in Samburu  A lioness has struck up friendship with an Oryx calf, escorting and protecting it around a Kenyan wildlife reserve, in a spectacle which has puzzled wildlife experts. The full grown lioness has been roaming Samburu game reserve in the company of a Beisa Oryx calf, which it would ordinarily have killed for a meal. Tourists and game workers have watched in disbelief as the lioness and the frail brown baby oryx walk side by side and lie down to rest – with all the intimacy of a mother and calf – at the foot of Koitogor hills, near the Serena Samburu. The lioness has been protecting the calf from other predators and at times walks watchfully behind it as it would with its own cubs. Game workers have witnessed the lioness frighten off a leopard which had been stalking the calf. A Nation team which followed the pair for two days saw the lioness lie down to rest in the hot afternoon sun and the oryx curl up casually beside it.  At one point, the lioness went hunting and returned shortly afterwards to keep watch on the grazing calf. "It's incredible. This is either an extraordinary case of maternal instinct or simply the eighth wonder of the world," remarked Serena Samburu's Herman Mwasaghua, one of the first to spot the unusual pair. No two animals could be more different in behaviour and feeding habits. Lions are voracious carnivores and commonly prey on browsers like antelopes, water bucks and zebras. The oryx is a gentle herbivore which survives on grass and leaves and spends much of its time dodging predators such as Big Cats, mainly by its speed. The lioness sleeps for upto 16 hours a day and is active for only eight while the oryx spends 65 per cent of its time browsing. Lions rely largely on their sight while oryx survives by its sharp sense of smell. Yet the Samburu pair have stuck together for close to 15 days, wandering in the wild in easy friendship.  The lioness is said to have taken over the calf when it frightened off its mother at birth. The two animals appeared to be badly starved in the early days of their friendship but soon settled to their separate feeding routines. Serena nature expert Vincent Kapeen thinks the lioness spared the calf when its mother fled "because all animals have a special instinct to care for the young." It took a liking to to the calf, possibly because a baby oryx has the same brown colour as a lion cub at the time of birth and just before maturity.  "The lioness became fond of the calf, maybe because it had lost the company of its pride and was feeling lonely. What is baffling is why the relationship has lasted so long," said Mr Kapeen.  "We don't know what will happen when the oryx grows horns, if they will still stay together."  Samburu County Council rangers have ruled out separating the two, preferring to let nature take its course. Yesterday, a grown oryx watched apprehensively from a distance as the lioness and the baby oryx walked together.  The spectacle has attracted a growing stream of nature lovers, tourists and Samburu villagers. The oryx is a big antelope with beautiful black and white marks on its head. There are two other varieties, the fringed eared oryx and the Gemsbok. Both sexes have long, almost straight horns, the females being more slender.

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[B4Ranch]

LOL

[blackie]

Thanks for ping Snow Bunny, great story !@!

[Mudboy Slim]

"I think we humans could (should) learn a lesson from this..."

And what lesson would that be, my FRiend?

FReegards...MUD

[Bigg Red]

This is an amazing story. (Unfortunately, I couldn't see the pix.) Thanks for the flag, girlfriend.

[My back yard]

The lioness does most of the hunting, not all of it. And there is a very good reason for that given the environment in which this survival behavior was developed. The 'King' is the protector, and a very important asset to overall safety and well-being as such. Neither one of those is more crucial to the den's survival than the other.

[Billie]

Tourists and game workers have watched in disbelief as the lioness and the frail brown baby oryx walk side by side and lie down to rest – with all the intimacy of a mother and calf – at the foot of Koitogor hills, near the Serena Samburu.

Beautiful story and pictures, Sabertooth. I'm just now getting here. I would add my ping list, but I think by now, probably most anyone on it has been pinged by Bunny - we have a lot of the same Canteen names on our flag lists. :^)

[philman_36]

You mentioned the second diaspora and I mentioned a way in which it could be brought about. Many people of Jewish descent are outrightly known while others have only surnames to indicate a possible Jewish ancestry. Would a third generation grandparent with the name Jacobs qualify one as "Jewish"? DNA testing could find out with some certainty.
With the cross marriage of many of known Jewish ancestry there is a large portion of the population that has only partial Jewish ancestry, "half-breeds" if you will. Many simply have no idea if their ancestry is "Jewish" or not. I would imagine that a large number of families never mentioned it simply in a desire to "fit in".
My reply was a somewhat facetious attempt to explain how a second, more thorough and complete, diaspora could be accomplished...DNA sampling. What would cause it to occur is a different subject.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

White tiger on a snowy day in my crosshairs. nice :)

[swampfox98]

Thanks for the ping. The lion and the lamb, indeed. Gives me goosebumps.

[jjbrouwer]

Saber: I haven't checked how this thread ended (don't think it is going to be a happy ending) but I will wish the lamb all the luck in the world. I think he may need it.

[bwteim]

Thanks for post and your ping, Sabertooth.

[Orual]

The lioness does most of the hunting, not all of it.

The lion has been seen to go after prey, but only after it has been wounded by another animal, usually the lioness. The term "lion's share" is not without a basis in fact. The male get the first and biggest share, then the cubs and the lioness get whatever is left over.

[fish hawk]

post#8 Howie, for gods sake take your dog to a CAT HOUSE!!!

[dagny taggert]

No, not happy at all, but not by the "mama" lion. update

[jjbrouwer]

These sort of sad stories really eat me up.

[Barak]

Would a third generation grandparent with the name Jacobs qualify one as "Jewish"? DNA testing could find out with some certainty.

I'm not sure it would be particularly relevant. The only Jewish people who are important are those who self-identify as Jews and who participate in and perpetuate Jewish culture. Without those people, Judaism would cease to exist, even if lawyers named Sidney Finkelstein with curly hair, bald spots, and big noses, who had no knowledge of Judaism, remained.

And religious and cultural Jews are easy to pick out. I don't think any DNA testing will be needed.

No--that doesn't scare me. You know what scares me?

It's fairly obvious that the United States as a nation has fallen very far from God: much farther, in some cases, than other nations which God has been recorded as judging very harshly. Why has God's judgment been withheld in our case? Well, I don't pretend to know the mind of God, but he did promise to bless those who bless Israel--and, of course, to curse those who curse her. The US is right now the best friend Israel or the Jewish people have ever had. Perhaps that has something to do with it.

However, probably in large part because of that, the US is now the only remaining major concentration of Jews outside Israel. Prophecy foretells that the Jewish people as a whole will return to Ha-Aretz, or the Land. (Not necessarily every single last one of them, but the vast majority.) That's got to mean there will be a large Jewish exodus from the US to Israel at some point in the future.

Why would that be, do you think? Because life in Israel, in a tiny little country with the weapons of the entire Arab world trained on it, will somehow become more attractive than life in the US currently is? That'd be nice, but somehow I don't think so.

Somehow I think what's going to chase the Jews out of the US is widespread, rampant anti-Semitism. It's much more realistic to think that the US will at some point in the future go from being a nation that blesses Israel to a nation that curses Israel.

And that's what scares me.

[Equality 7-2521]

A woman who can quote Fletch? Wow!

"Can I borrow your towel? My car just hit a water buffalo."

Actually, maybe that would make a good note for that "pick-up lines" thread running concurrently.

[philman_36]

Somehow I think what's going to chase the Jews out of the US is widespread, rampant anti-Semitism.
Pretty much what I was getting at. "Just to be sure they're all gone"...or similarly "Find out who they all are to get rid of 'em and make sure they're all gone".
A "Don't want any taint left" mentality. An "undersirables" mindset. "Ship 'em back to Israel!"
Watching and waiting, expecting the unimaginable.

[Sungirl]

What a great story!

I'll bet it has something to do with the way the lamb smells.
I don't want to hear if this story has a violent ending.

[MeekOneGOP]

And what lesson would that be, my FRiend?

---

Well, how about getting along and being human (or being human-like at least) in general? As opposed to looking for and finding fault? (I'm not real good about expressing stuff like this - does this make any sense to ya?). I think it was kinda neat the rangers didn't interfere and bust it up. . .

---

"The lioness became fond of the calf, maybe because it had lost the company of its pride and was feeling lonely. What is baffling is why the relationship has lasted so long," said Mr Kapeen.

"We don't know what will happen when the oryx grows horns, if they will still stay together."

Samburu County Council rangers have ruled out separating the two, preferring to let nature take its course. Yesterday, a grown oryx watched apprehensively from a distance as the lioness and the baby oryx walked together.

The spectacle has attracted a growing stream of nature lovers, tourists and Samburu villagers.