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Lion and Lamb lie down together in Kenya! (my title)
DailyNation on the Web ^ | January 7, 2002 | MUGUMO MUNENE

Posted on 01/07/2002 7:58:22 AM PST by Sabertooth

   
 
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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.
 

 
 
Copyright ©2001, Nation Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved.
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TOPICS: Front Page News; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: hughhewitt
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To: DoughtyOne; snuffington; Snow Bunny
Snow Bunny, thanks for the ping. This is an amazing story!

DoughtyOne and snuffington, thanks for reposting the pics, I couldn't see them on the 1-50 posts page.

81 posted on 01/07/2002 3:16:39 PM PST by NCEaglette
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To: Snow Bunny
S.B.
Thanks for the invite to the picture show, but I can't get any of the images to load
82 posted on 01/07/2002 3:24:55 PM PST by editor-surveyor
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To: Sabertooth;Snow Bunny;RonDog
L-a-a-a-a-a-mbert, The Sheepish Lion



The stork mistakenly delivers Lambert,
a baby lion, to a flock of sheep.
The mother won't let the stork take him back,
so Lambert is raised as a sheep,
but he just doesn't fit in.
He grows up cowardly,
until the day his mother is chased by a wolf.

83 posted on 01/07/2002 3:52:56 PM PST by WIMom
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To: Sabertooth; Mudboy Slim; CheneyChick; vikingchick; Victoria Delsoul; WIMom; susangirl...
I hope you're all sittin' down. FOX News just carried a follow-up story about this.

The lioness fell asleep by a watering hole and - yes, another lion came along and nature took its' course. Soooo sorry to break the news. . .
:o(

84 posted on 01/07/2002 3:53:07 PM PST by MeekOneGOP
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To: Alamo-Girl; Republican Wildcat; Howlin; Fred Mertz; onyx; RonDog; .30Carbine...
Bad News Bump. See post #84. . .
85 posted on 01/07/2002 3:56:29 PM PST by MeekOneGOP
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To: MeeknMing
Why didn't somebody SAVE HIM????????
86 posted on 01/07/2002 4:04:22 PM PST by Howlin
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To: MeeknMing
well, that's sad but this is much sadder:

2 legged jackals slaughter 2 legged lambs!

very graphic! and don't forget, oakland, calif. named a street after mandela!!

87 posted on 01/07/2002 4:04:27 PM PST by rockfish59
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To: MeeknMing
See post #74 for the link.
88 posted on 01/07/2002 4:05:26 PM PST by dagny taggert
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To: Howlin
Why didn't somebody SAVE HIM????????
No applicable Federal programs initiated to help 'em?. . .
:o)
89 posted on 01/07/2002 4:19:17 PM PST by MeekOneGOP
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To: MeeknMing
The lioness fell asleep by a watering hole and - yes, another lion came along and nature took its' course.

Life's a beach!

90 posted on 01/07/2002 4:22:10 PM PST by michigander
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To: Equality 7-2521
"Could you love a woman who looks like that?

"Ten, fifteen minutes tops..."

91 posted on 01/07/2002 4:23:10 PM PST by rintense
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To: Sabertooth
No relation I hope, Sabertooth?. . . .




92 posted on 01/07/2002 4:23:15 PM PST by MeekOneGOP
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To: MeeknMing
Soooo sorry to break the news. . . :o(

Well, it was a good story for a day or two anyway.

93 posted on 01/07/2002 5:23:19 PM PST by Fred Mertz
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To: rockfish59
well, that's sad but this is much sadder. . .
Sheesh! You got that right. I perused thru and those pictures remind me of some of the documentaries I've seen of the WWII Auschwitz Death Camps, etc. . . .
94 posted on 01/07/2002 5:51:57 PM PST by MeekOneGOP
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To: Barak
Do you think that the widespread, rampant anti-Semitism in the U.S. will come after the Rapture? I cannot foresee any other way that the Christians in this country would allow that. The Christians would have to be non-existant.
95 posted on 01/07/2002 5:55:23 PM PST by Aquamarine
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To: all

NOT CHECKED OUT YET BY ME

GOOD PROPHECY WEB PLACE PRE TRIB

96 posted on 01/07/2002 6:03:39 PM PST by Dubya
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To: Sabertooth
It's called DIVERSITY, get in there with them lions you stupid closed minded Oryx, they are just like you, and BTW, don't even think of offending them.
97 posted on 01/07/2002 6:05:58 PM PST by X-FID
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To: Dubya
I'll try again

GOOD PROPHECY PRE TRIB WEB SITE


98 posted on 01/07/2002 6:13:28 PM PST by Dubya
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To: Snow Bunny;RonDog
Thank you so much for the pings. This was a truly awesome tale in spite of the sad ending.

Did you see this story? Some stories actually leave me speechless, a minor miracle. (^:

Toddler says he saw angels, Canada:

Gabriel’s mother, Tobi Gabriel, was killed when her car flew off a cliff and landed on the rocky shore off Lower Cove Road near Joggins, Cumberland Co., between 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Christmas Eve. But the three-year-old survived the crash, and a cold night alone on the beach.

He had frostbitten toes and a bump on his head, but was otherwise unharmed when a neighbour found him at 9 a.m. Christmas day.

Gage said the two “angels” appeared on the water where his mother’s lifeless body floated near her overturned car.


From the mouths of babes.
99 posted on 01/07/2002 6:27:25 PM PST by Ragtime Cowgirl
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To: MeeknMing; Howlin
Deiails of what happened:

Tuesday, January 8, 2002

Lioness and a baby oryx: Mystery remains

By MUGUMO MUNENE

The spectacular friendship between a lioness and a baby oryx that has had all Kenya talking remains a puzzle for game workers and wildlife experts.

In a radical departure from its instincts, the lioness protected the little calf, which it would ordinarily have killed for a meal, escorting it around the Samburu wildlife reserve. Truck loads of tourists kept following the pair as they strolled around the foot of Koitogor Hills, near the Serena Samburu lodge.

Alongside game workers the tourists watched daily in disbelief as the lioness and the frail brown calf wandered the range side by side and lay down to rest together, with all the intimacy of a mother and her cub.

Had the lioness adopted the oryx as her own? What powerful drive overrode all her instincts to kill?

No scientific explanation has been offered yet for the strange friendship which lasted for an amazing 15 days before the law of the jungle reigned supreme and sadly an older lion from another pride killed the calf.

Death came suddenly when the odd couple strayed into the territory of another lion, which spotted easy prey.

The predator pounced as the lioness turned her back to drink from the Uaso Nyiro river, late on Sunday evening.

It was an unusual lapse of care on the lioness's part. For the time they were together, she had successfully warded off all dangers to the frail little calf, including threats from a pride of cheetahs, by walking watchfully behind it as it would with its own cubs.

A Nation team which had earlier 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 her. At one point, the lioness went hunting but quickly returned to keep watch on the grazing calf.

The lioness is said to have taken over the calf after frightening off its mother at birth. The two animals appeared to be starving in the early days of their friendship but soon settled to their separate feeding routines. Tourists interviewed by the Nation after witnessing the episode were lost for words while others saw it to another wonder of the world. The two animals have sharply contrasting 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, although the adults are also adept at defending themselves with their long sword-like horns.

The lioness sleeps for up to 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 survive by their sharp sense of smell, which deepened the mystery of how the two had been communicating in the wild. Samburu rangers had ruled out separating them, preferring to let nature take its course, but like everyone else, they crossed their fingers in the hope that the mysterious relationship would last.

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

Wildlife experts say that lions - moving in twos or threes - will normally mark out a territory by fighting off the weaker males. They will then subdue the females within the territory by killing all the cubs from previous mates and siring their own as the natural way of ensuring their own perpetuation.

Samburu Serena nature expert Vincent Kapeen said there was a high possibility that the killer lion, which the Nation team had spotted about two kilometres from the couple on Sunday morning, could have killed the calf while mistaking it for a rival's cub, but then realised that it was actually a meal.

100 posted on 01/07/2002 6:33:36 PM PST by JulieRNR21
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