After killing and eating this antelope's mother, the lioness reacts to the baby kob's arrival with a roar of suspicion These touching photographs show a lioness adopting a helpless antelope calf - after she killed its mother. The intimidating beast had just finished devouring a Ugandan Kob, and had the wounds to show for it, when its terrified child emerged. Instead of making the defenceless infant her dessert, however, the merciful creature took pity on it and carried it away to safety.
The lioness first stares at the calf in shock, before roaring angrily at it to make it go away. Finally, her maternal instincts take over, and after batting the quivering calf with a paw, she picks up the orphaned baby and carries it off like one of her own cubs. Other tourists in the Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, later reported seeing the calf running around unharmed, so its luck clearly held out.