This is the hilarious moment a lioness pushes her annoying cub back into a river.
Adorable pictures show the five-month-old cub busy playing with his mother, who occasionally hit him to keep him at a distance.
Clearly annoyed by the young lion’s games, the matriarch finally pushed her cub back over the ridge when his back was turned.
In a moment of comical perfection, the young man managed to roll onto his backside with a look of disbelief at the betrayal, before collapsing and disappearing into the water.
The moment was captured perfectly by South African safari guide Kagiso Magano while on a tour of the Madikwe Game Reserve.
This is the hilarious moment a lioness pushed her upset cub back into a river, captured by safari tour guide Kagiso Magano in Madikwe Game Reserve in February.
In a moment of comedic perfection, the young man managed to roll onto his butt with a look of disbelief at the betrayal after being pushed.
Kagiso said: “I’ve been a guide for 15 years and I’ve never seen anything like this before, it was so much fun.”
The satisfied lioness watched as her cub disappeared from sight on the ridge below.
Kagiso spotted the big cat family enjoying some time together on February 23, but one cub was being particularly playful.
Kagiso, from Rockfig Madikwe Lodge, said: “I’ve been a guide for 15 years and I’ve never seen anything like this before, it was so much fun.”
‘This puppy is the only one in the litter and is very playful. Obviously mom found him annoying that day while she was trying to rest and she decided to teach him a lesson.
“They are part of the Mica Jamala Pride, which is based in the south of the reserve.”
The Madikwe Game Reserve is home to a small fraction of South Africa’s estimated 3,284 lions (according to World Population Review in 2024) in its 750 square kilometer area in the north of the country.
At five months old, the cheeky cub above is still in the early stages of his life, although little lions start taking part in kills from 11 months of age.
However, they cannot survive until they are two years old and into adolescence.
As this young cub is male, he will probably be expelled from his pack at three years old and will become a nomad, until he is old and strong enough to take control of another pack as its main figure.
Wild lions rarely live more than 10 years, although in captivity they can survive more than 25 years.
Despite their notorious power, lion numbers are actually declining and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies them as vulnerable.