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.

Copyright ©2001, Nation Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved. Front Page | News | Business | Comment | Letters | Sports | Cutting Edge |

[Sabertooth]

Here's another pic:

Yet another sign of the Apocalypse.

Lions like this give large predatory cats a bad name.

[Sabertooth]

(((ping))))

[dighton]

Now this is an astonishing story.

[.30Carbine]

I know a Tiger very much like the big cat in this story.

Yes, both big cats are "signs of the times." ( :

Thanks so much for posting this story. I hope we get updates.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Orual]

Absolutely unbelievable, especially in light of the fact that the lioness does all the hunting while her master, the King, and the kids wait for her return. And they get to eat only after he's done. I've seen them stalk and hunt in several game parks in Kenya, and I still find it incredible that this lioness didn't tear the oryx apart at first sight since they are careful to select the most vulnerable of prey.

[Howie]

I have a 5 yr. old female Doberman that has never had pups but hasn't been spayed. Once a year she goes into a "mother mode", the vet says it is a "false pregnancy". He says it is a hormonal thing. She will get milk in her teats, they droop like a new mother, she will become very anxious, will eventually round up a bunch of her plastic toys and pile them up and groom, and guard them for a month or more.

If a stranger or my wife gets close to them she threatens them, growls, shows fangs, etc.), she allows me to pick them up but is very uncomfortable when I do.

She seems very frustrated because they refuse to nurse. If my wife tries to hide them from her she sniffs them out and piles them up again. There is no doubt she thinks they are puppies.

Maybe lions have this condition, also? Regards, Howie

[Doctor Stochastic]

Raise your own food?

[Orual]

Raise your own food?

Run that by me again. Don't quite get it.

[dighton]

[Paul Leyhausen] once had a wild cat named Tilly, whose diet included live rats. One of them managed to escape being caught by hiding under the cat's sleeping box. From there it made forays into the cage, nipping at Tilly's heels in a most unsettling manner. (Rats aren't supposed to be aggressors.) Finally, Tilly decided it was a "pet" rat and not a "food" rat, and gave it the run of the cage. She went about her daily business of killing food rats without ever mistaking her pet rat for one of them. In fact, the two of them came in time to eat fresh-killed rats together.

Tilly never struck at or bit her pet rat, even when it snatched food away from her, and eventually it moved from under her sleeping box into her sleeping box. Tilly slept holding it to her breast with her fore paws. This idyllic comradeship lasted four months, at the end of which Leyhausen took the rat away from her. Three months later, he returned it to her cage. Tilly showed no sign of recognition, and started after it. It had turned into a "food" rat. The rat, too big now to hide under the cat's sleeping box, jumped into its one-time refuge. But the appeal to auld lang syne was fruitless: Tilly leaped into the box and killed and ate her former friend.

-- Muriel Beadle, The Cat.

[mercy]

Lion Shows Unusual Intelligence and Takes Up Practice of Animal Husbandry ... Would be my headline. She's just waiting for her meal to put on a little weight.

[Fred Mertz]

I hope the lioness doesn't get too hungry one day.

[Orual]

Tilly leaped into the box and killed and ate her former friend.

Note to the oryx: Stay close by. Forever.

Some people just don't know the right buttons to push.

[Sabertooth]

She's just waiting for her meal to put on a little weight.

And people ask me why they call you mercy.

[Rebelbase]

Cats always like to play with live food before eating it. This one is just enjoying the game longer than most.

[denydenydeny]

I think it was Woody Allen who said that the lion may lie down with the lamb, but the lamb won't get much sleep.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Cats and dogs, living in sin. The lion turns her back on the laws of nature that feed her. Ya think this lion's name is David Brock, Jim Jeffords, or Teresa Heinz?

[Samwise]

Cats and dogs, living in sin.

Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!

[MaeWest]

What a couple of sweeties. Hope it lasts.

[Jerry_M]

Nah, this lion is just "fattening up" the oryx for better eating.

[dighton]

Kids, don't try this at home.

[Barak]

Sounds familiar, but can you refresh my memory on that?

It's a slightly skewed reference to Isaiah 11:

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

It's a reference to the Messianic Age, and is followed by a reference to the second great regathering of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.

Before lions and calves (it's not lions and lambs: it's wolves and lambs, and lions and calves) lying down together has prophetic significance, we need to see a second great regathering. We have seen the beginning of the first one, begun in 1948; but it's not finished yet (there are still more Jews in the US than there are in Israel), and there must be another Diaspora (probably the Time of Jacob's Trouble, or Tribulation, prophesied in Zechariah and in Revelation) before the second great regathering can begin.

Both the second great regathering and the reversion of carnivores to herbivorism are things that will happen when Messiah returns, according to Isaiah. (He speaks of this also at the end of chapter 65.)

In other words, this is not a sign of the apocalypse.

But it is fascinating.

[aculeus]

Now this is an astonishing story.

Indeed.

[Orual]

Kids, don't try this at home.

Or this.

[MeekOneGOP]

Lion and Lamb lie down together in Kenya!

Excerpt:

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.

---

I think we humans could (should) learn a lesson from this?
Thanks for post this article, Sabertooth!
(((PING))))))
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[SusanUSA]

How sweet! Thank you.

[Victoria Delsoul]

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."

Oooh, this is so wonderful! Thanks for posting this, Saber. I love it.

[mercy]

LOL ... Like to keep em guessing.

[rintense]

AWWW! What a great story! Just goes to prove that the maternal instinct is much stronger than that to kill. Unless of course your name is Andrea Yates. Sorry, low blow.

It is not unheard of for mother cats to adopt abandoned baby squirrels and raccoons. Maybe the lioness just lost her cub and needed to fill her still dominant maternal instincts.

[rintense]

I believe the actuall line was: Cats and dogs living together...

[Sabertooth]

Oooh, this is so wonderful! Thanks for posting this, Saber. I love it.

My pleasure! I'm glad you enjoyed it, Victoria.

You're a William Blake fan...

Didn't he do a Lion and Lamb picture somewhere? Seems to ring a bell.

[Sabertooth]

"I believe the actuall line was: Cats and dogs living together..."

Now why doesn't it surprise me that you'd remember that line?

[rintense]

I can pretty much quote any part of that movie- and Fletch also.

[RonDog]

"Surprise in the Kenyan wild as lioness adopts oryx"

from
Daily NATION - on the web

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them."
(KJV) Isa 11:6
(from www.GodsPromises.org)

Thanks for the flags, Sabertooth and MeeknMing!

.

If you listen to Hugh Hewitt, or read his WND commentaries,
this PING list is for YOU!
Please post your comments, and BUMP!

(If you want OFF - or ON - my "Hugh Hewitt PING list" - please let me know.)

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Ditter]

Wasn't the lion & the lamb supposed to lay down together AFTER the Apocalypse? Biblical scholars where are you?

[b4its2late]

That's one lucky Oryx.

[Snow Bunny]

HI Saber my friend. This is a wonderful story. Thank you so much. I am going to ping my friends to see this.

[Kevin Curry]

It is also unusual for a lioness to be living apart from a pride. Perhaps the lioness gew up orphaned and alone, never learned appropriate pride behavior, but her instincts to associate with other lionesses have caused her to interact with the oryx as if it were another lioness (roughly same size and color). The oryx, on the other hand, has simply latched onto the lioness as a consequence of post-birth imprinting.

Similarly, I've heard it said that dogs relate socially to humans so well because dogs consider their human owners strange-looking and smelling dogs. It is pack behavior.

[SAMWolf]

Too small for a decent meal. She's just keeping it around til it fattens up.

[JustAmy]

Great story, thanks for the ping.

[Teacup]

Thanks for the ping Snow Bunny. This is truly a great story.

[firewalk]

Thanks for the ping. (-:

[HiJinx]

You are bad, SamWolf! Wait 'til Beamer hears about this!

[Landru]

"Lions like this give large predatory cats a bad name."

Don't be absurd.
This cat's one of the smartest creatures I've ever heard of.
Treating this thing as-if it were a Savings Bond.

...just waitin' for the thing to finally mature before cashing-in.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[pollyshy]

Thanks for the ping, Snow Bunny! This story is heartwarming and interesting.

[backhoe]

Neat story- thanks! FWIW, back when I had dogs & cats together, they got along fine- shared patrol & hunting duties!