Reply #57: Ever start crying around your pet cats?

[geniph]

I can't speak for yours, but mine get really agitated if I'm upset, or my husband is. They do everything in their power to comfort us. I have no doubt at all that lions can react the same way; it's certainly not common, but absolutely plausible. All mammals know a vulnerable youngster when they see or smell one, and most will try to protect one against other predators, even one of another species.

Because female lions have to band together to save each other's cubs from stray males of their own species, there's a certain instinctive protection of cubs from males that could easily kick in in a case like this. Had she been being threatened by women, it's doubtful they'd have protected her the same way.