Not many photographers can claim that their equipment was used as a toy by a lioness’s cubs but wildlife photographer Barbara Jensen Vorster can certainly claim that. She was photographing a pride of lions in Botswana back in July when her camera was picked up by a lioness. She did have another camera to capture the interesting photos which show what happened next.
Vorster was shooting with her camera kit worth close to $2,000 at the Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana. She accidentally dropped the kit on the ground. The lioness heard the thud and growled before approaching the group to see what they were up to.
The photographer and her group had to retreat to their 4×4, leaving her expensive camera kit behind. “The camera fell with the lens looking up, she gently flipped the camera on its side and picked it up by the barrel of the lens,” she said.
The camera and telephoto lens was then picked up by the lioness in her mouth who carried it over to her cubs and dropped it on the ground. The cubs pounced on the new toy and started playing with it. “They dragged it through the dirt, chewed on the lens hood and then fortunately, like most kids, soon grew tired with their new toy,” Vorster added.
Despite being picked up in the mouth by a lioness and used as a toy by her cubs, the camera is still functional and only required repairs of a few hundred dollars, leaving Vorster with the story of a lifetime.