The lioness.

This photo is from www.douglas-hamilton.com and comes from a special on Animal Planet called "Heart of a Lioness" that I watched today with my sister. This lioness was alone, had somehow ended up without a lion pride and adopted a baby oryx because she wanted something to take care of. She went without eating for 16 days well she had the baby. She wouldn't even eat the slabs of meat that the park decided to try feeding her to make sure she lived. In the documentary the people said that this lion would become a legend and were saying that God had come. There was the lion lying down with the lamb. It was really an amazing thing to watch this lion who should normally be eating something like the little calf instead trying to get it back when it tried running off with an oryx herd. She called for it like she was calling for a cub. It ended tragically when a male lion managed to get to the calf before the lioness realized it was in danger. Over the next year she tried adopting 5 other calves.

It was sad to see this lioness wanting to be with something so badly that she would bond with another species and refuse to eat while she was taking care of this baby. She was completely out of her element and needed something so badly she was willing to die rather than be left alone. She was willing to go against everything in her nature to have something to take care of.