Unbelievable! Baboon grooms lion cub

A video of a baboon nurturing a lion cub up on top of a tree at Kruger National Park is being widely shared on social media.

The video shared by YouTube page Kruger Sightings was shot by Kurt Schultz of Kurt Safari, reported the Daily Mail.

In the video, the adult baboon can be seen sitting on a marula tree and as the sun shines through the leaves, it turns around to reveal that it is holding a lion cub which is crying out feebly and clearly in distress.

The video is captioned: "Watch the incredible and never-before-seen moment a male baboon stole a lion cub and starts grooming it, while it is alive and healthy."

The video shows the baboon likely adopting the big cat cub. Twitter is skeptical about the outcome though.

While some are happy at this cross species bond, others are of the opinion that the lion cub may not survive for long on the branches.

Ill-informed Tweeple even suggest that the baboon cannot make the lion cub learn hunting techniques, so the cub would likely die of hunger. Baboons are carnivores and are known to hunt around.

Some even fear that baboon might itself kill and eat the cub.

A user wrote: "I'd be curious to see how that ends.A At some point the lion cub will need milk and somehow I doubt the baboon will be able to accommodate."

Another wrote: "This is how our ancestors adopted their first cat millions of years ago."

A post read: "Baboons have been known to kidnap feral dog puppies and raise them to adults and basically keep them as pets who knows what will happen here...."

Another remarked: "Someone needs to advice this baboon he is playing a dangerous game here. You don't kidnap king of the jungle's cub and live long to tell about it!"

( With inputs from IANS )