These are the shocking pictures that show that nature is brutal - but also profoundly moving.
After realising an antelope she has killed was pregnant, a lioness removes the unborn calf, tries to nudge it back to life and even protects and hides it as if it is her own cub.
The lioness even seems to show regret for her actions and the pictures will spark a debate about the awareness of animals.
The remarkable sequence of photos were captured by conservationist and reserve ranger Gerry Van Der Walt.
The party had been travelling through the Madikwe Game Reserve, in South Africa, early this year when they came across the predator and a dead Red Hartebeest antelope.
He and a group of visitors spotted the big cat just moments after she had made her kill and expected to witness nothing more than a simple feeding.
But what followed astounded everyone.
Gerry, 33, who has worked on reserves and with wildlife in South Africa for more than two decades, said that he thought the kill was going to be pretty much 'by the book'.
He said: 'My guests were also watching the scene through their video cameras and binoculars.
'As the lioness got hold of what we thought was the stomach she started pulling it out.
'But as the cat stood up to get a little more leverage a ranger next to me said: "That is not the stomach".
'I have seen a lion kill where the prey was pregnant but normally they would just carry on feeding as if nothing was wrong.
'But this time the scenes that followed had us all dumbstruck.
'Once out of the mother the lioness very gently placed the foetus on the floor and spent quite a bit of time smelling and investigating the unborn Hartebeest.
