Thieving Lioness Gifts Cubs with Canon DSLR (And It’s All on Video)

Talk about raising the stakes for gift giving.

In case you were wondering what the bar was for photography gifts this season then a lioness in Botswana might be an inspiration to gift-givers around the world, pilfering wildlife photographer Barbara Jensen Vorster’s Canon DSLR and subsequently gifting it to her young cubs.

And best of all?

The entire scene was captured on camera, naturally.

While on a trek in Botswana’s Mashatu Game Reserve, Barbara Jensen Vorster happened upon a pride of lions one of which was the aforementioned lioness with a penchant for Canons.

Armed with a Canon 7D and Canon 100-400mm lens according to PetaPixel, Vorster was probably living the life until she dropped her camera, sending it hurtling to the ground. It landed with a loud thud that sparked the interest of the lioness nearby who initially treated the camera as a threat.

Then realizing it was harmless or quite the prize, either one, the lioness then took the camera to her cubs and presented them with a gift that PetaPixel valued at over $USD 2k.

Again, like we said, this lioness is setting the standards for photography gift giving.

The cubs proceeded to play with their new toy, quite roughly per the photographer’s account, but once they were distracted the Canon was retrieved and works just fine albeit with a few new battle scars.

After a little under $USD 400 in repairs, it’s as good as new(s).

And best of all? Barbara Jensen Vorster was able to capture the whole thing in photos and film.

If you’d like to watch the video of the encounter with the lioness and her cubs you can do so by clicking here and heading over to YouTube.

You can also check out the photographer's work over at her Instagram page by clicking here.