Nature is nature. Sometimes it can be beautiful, like when a herd of elephants helps a calf out of the water when it is stuck. At other times, nature can leave us speechless and heartbroken. This is one of those times when a lone serval kitten tries to fight off a lion.

Watch the sad moment a serval mom and kitten get separated by a lioness that drives the kitten to fight for its life. Unfortunately, the kitten’s determination was no match for the lioness.

This unfortunate sighting was filmed by 56-year-old entrepreneur, Rikard Ryden, while on a safari in the Maasai Mara. Rikard Ryden, Wildlife Photographer from Sweden, tells LatestSightings.com the story:

“We were driving around the Mara on an early morning when our guide, the very best one in Africa, Mr Lenny Koshal, spotted a serval! Shortly after, we also spotted the kitten. It is extremely rare to see a serval, let alone a kitten! We all got really excited. Only seconds later, we saw two lionesses sneaking into the bushes where servals had just gone.”

“Our guide got a bit upset since he knew the serval kitten was in danger. We drove up to the lionesses and tried to disturb them, but they were too invested in the servals already. They did not care too much, even when we almost bumped into them!”

“We saw the lionesses hurry to one part of the bushes, and the mother serval ran off. We drove around to see what was going on. The kitten was found by the lionesses! When we got there, the kitten was doing its best to scare the lioness away.”

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“Sighting ended when the serval kitten charged and tried to scare away the lioness, but all of a sudden, the lioness just took the kitten and bit it.”

—WATCH—

“We have not even seen a Serval before. Our guide who has been a full time guide in Maasai Mara for 12 years has only seen serval kittens on 4 occasions. Our sighting has probably never been seen before and definitely not on film. Lions are not even known to go after servals.”

“After the kitten got attacked by the lion, the serval mother was running around looking and calling for the kitten and it was very sad when the mother realized the kitten was gone. When she saw the kitten, she took off.”