Photographer Captures Moment When Baboon Imitates 'Lion King'

Trending | Animals

Photo Captures Real Life "Lion King" Moment, But It's Not As Sweet As It Sounds

Dafna Ben Nun - Instagram / Walt Disney Pictures

I think we can all agree that The Lion King is one of those iconic movies that basically everyone has scene right? We all watched it as kids or with our kids and grand kids, enjoying the songs, the story, and of course the epic characters.

The story begins with a ceremony for all the animals, culminating in the baboon named Rafiki holding up young Simba to the sky, presenting him as the future king. This scene is probably one of the most recreated scenes in history.

Anytime you see someone holding a cat, a small dog, or even a baby, they will often do the Rafiki move and hold them up in the air. It's just a fun little thing to do, and it amuses us all.

But apparently we aren't the only ones who are entertained by this move, as a real baboon was caught doing the same thing.

A photographer was spending time in Zimbabwe while planning for a longer excursion, and she got to observe a group of baboons for a half hour.

Dafna Ben Nun was watching over the troop, just seeing how they interacted together, when she noticed that one female baboon reached out and grabbed a small baby and hold it in the air.  

"I couldn't believe it when I saw an adult baboon holding a baby, looking exactly like Simba in The Lion King," she said. "They were all in the same group so no harm was done to any of the animals."

"It was just a split second, but it was fascinating to watch!" Ben Nun continued.

However, while the epic moment captured on film was actually one of the females temporarily kidnapping the baby from its mother. The next shot she captured was the mother snatching back her baby.

"I've seen it happen before," she said. "I think they're all raising the children together. I haven't been there enough to learn about it."

The photographer is going back to Zimbabwe to learn more about the animals there, but the photo she took is something that has taken the internet by storm.  

Source - CTV News / Global News

Could you imagine being able to see that out in the wild? It would be absolutely remarkable!