In July, Vorster and some colleagues took pictures at the Mashatu Game Reserve. She started shooting with a Canon 7D camera and a Canon 100-400mm lens, worth about $2,000 in total.

While careless, she dropped her camera. Hearing the noise, the mother lion noticed and approached the group of photographers to explore. Not wanting to be in danger, Vorster and her group had to retreat into the car without having time to pick up the camera.

“The camera crashed with the lens facing up, the lion gently flipped it over and grabbed the lens ,” Vorster said.

After that, the mother lion took the camera and telephoto lens away for a while and then dropped it on the ground. The cubs quickly gathered to play with the new toy.

Vorster also quickly took another camera to record the whole incident.

“They drag the camera on the ground, chew on the lens hood and luckily, like children, they quickly get bored with the new toy,” the female photographer shared.

After retrieving the camera that the lions had left behind, Vorster was glad that it was still working well despite a few teeth marks outside.

The camera was “very dirty but still working ,” Vorster said. “There are two large marks on the rubber focus ring of the lens and small teeth marks on the plastic lens hood, which I will keep as a souvenir not to replace these.”

The mother lion brought back a thousand dollar camera for her children to play

Vorster paid £200 for accessories to fix the broken parts, but that was too cheap for a unique set of photos she took that day. Vorster considers it a priceless experience and no photographer with a camera has ever been inside a lion’s mouth.