A screenshot of the video in the crucial moment where a lioness is awoken from her afternoon nap.
A timeless video was filmed by 32-year-old safari guide Joshua Loonkushu on an evening game drive near the river in the Kruger National Park.
It captures a lion quietly stalking a lioness, who was taking an afternoon nap. Just when it looked as though he was going to lie down next to her, he playfully bites her on the buttocks. The lioness is not impressed, and snaps at him, which the young lion clearly enjoys.
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Joshua told Lowvelder his story:
“On the previous day, we had spotted this pride of lions that had just killed a wildebeest within the banks of the Sand River in Maasai Mara. I decided to head over there the next day to try and track them down. Luckily I managed to find them!
“In the beginning, I couldn’t imagine that the male lion was going to behave like this! He got up and kept on creeping towards the lioness, almost stalking. He was taking all effort to keep as silent as possible.
“I told my guests that we are up to something quite interesting here. As he got to the lioness, he bit her! It took the lioness exactly 2 split seconds to go from fast asleep to be in defence mode and ready to attack!
“Soon after this scuffle, the rest of the pride joined the two, hugging them as if they were asking what was the matter?
“In my eight years of guiding, this was the first sighting of its kind! I’ve never seen something like this, and if someone else comes across a great sighting like this, I say share it with the world!”
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