Lioness Teaches Tiny Cubs to Climb Tree

These brand-new baby lion cubs desperately try to reach their mother, after she calls them to join her at the top of a tree.

After discovering that one of the resident lionesses had given birth to a cute litter of cubs, everyone was excited to see them. The guides at MalaMala had given the mother and cubs some space in their first few days, just so that the mother was not under any stress. However, on this particular day, the mother lion decided that she was now ready to show her cubs.

As the group got into one of the dry riverbeds and scanned for a bit, the sound of a mother lion caught Michael’s attention. They approached the calls and were greeted by the cutest little lion cubs playing with each other. At this point, their mother was already standing in a tree.

She looked down on her cubs and let out some low-toned calls. She was letting her little ones know that she was up above them. With their small legs, the cubs frantically ran around the base of this tree, looking up at mom and letting out their cute contact calls. It sounded as though mom was trying to communicate with her cubs and tell them to come up.

The little ones, with their tiny legs and small size, thought that this was an impossible task. They found a much smaller branch of the tree that had fallen and thought that this was more achievable. With all the determination in the world, they amazingly climbed it with ease and looked over to Mom. However, their mother wanted them over in the bigger tree. She wanted to teach them the skill that not many lions have: climbing a tree.

Leopards are cats that are known for climbing trees, not lions. However, lions have been observed climbing trees on occasion. Sometimes to steal a kill of a leopard that was left in a low enough branch, and other times just for a bit of fun and games.

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