A Connecticut photographer has captured a thrilling encounter between a baby baboon and a 350lb lioness in a game park in Botswana.
The incredible pictures show the moment the baboon's mother is killed, leaving the baby face-to-face with the roaring predator.
But instead of swallowing the tiny creature, a tender moment ensues where the baby baboon attempts to suckle the lioness and the big cat gently plays along.
However, in the fascinating display caught on camera, the little one is finally plucked to safety by his brave father.
Photographer Evan Schiller took the spectacular shots in November while he and his wife Lisa Holzwarth were on a game drive in northern Botswana's Selinda Camp.
Holzwarth later wrote about the experience in a post on her blog, The LEO Chronicles.
She explains how the big cat enthusiasts were watching a leopard when they noticed it becoming anxious.
"Then the baboons started screaming as four large lionesses had emerged from the tall grass and rushed at the baboons," Holzwarth wrote.
Three baboons suddenly attempted to 'make a run for it' to another group of trees. Two arrived unscathed but a third got snapped up in the jaws of a lioness.
"We noticed a little baby (less than a month old) slowly disengaging from its mother's dying body," she explained.
The baby baboon immediately tried to find safety in a tree. At that point, the lionesses noticed the baby baboon.
However, they didn't go in for the kill. Instead, one of the lionesses began playing 'cat and mouse' with the little one and allowed the baby to 'suckle' for a while.
But then the lionesses became distracted by two male lions, giving the baboon's father the opportunity to rescue the helpless infant.