We’ve all been there. A photographer captured a lion cub splayed out on the ground with an inflated belly after it had eaten to the point of exhaustion.
Johan J Botha was in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in South Africa when he came across a lion family feeding on a gemsbok they had killed.
“It was January, midsummer, and temperatures easily reached 40 degrees Celsius [104 degrees Fahrenheit] on the day these images were taken,” Botha tells PetaPixel. “We spent a long time with them in the intense heat — but it proved both rewarding and surprisingly humorous.”
The male lion winks at the camera. | Johan J Botha 
Johan J Botha
The lion family had already eaten most of the antelope when Botha arrived. He captured the male lion lifting his head while feeding and looking straight down the barrel of the photographer’s lens before giving a wink. “Shortly afterwards, he began cleaning his face with his tongue — something I had never photographed before,” Botha adds.
After a generous feast, the lions groomed one another and one of the three lion cubs tried to play with its father. But in the suffocating heat and all that food in its stomach, the play lasted only moments and the cub quickly settled down.
The cub tried to play, but was too full. | Johan J Botha 
The lions quickly settled down. | Johan J Botha
Hot and overfed, two of the lions rolled onto their backs in an amusing manner that felt “disarmingly human,” according to Botha.
“The cub managed one last lazy glance in my direction before drifting into deep sleep,” he says.
Johan J Botha The photographer got this golden frame of the lion cub on its back with a full belly looking straight at the camera. | Johan J Botha
Why Do Lions Fall into Food Comas?
Unlike many wild animals that graze all day, lions have a feast-or-famine lifestyle. After a kill, the big cats will gorge. A male lion can eat up to 90 pounds of food in one sitting — that’s an astonishing 20 percent of its body weight.
Indiana Public Media explains that since the lion may not have a successful hunt for another week or so, it will gorge as much as it can to sustain itself. It’s a strategic trait the lion species has developed so it can survive.
Just like people, after eating a large meal lions feel sleepy and moving around is uncomfortable. As this lion cub shows, it’s best to just relax and let the food digest.
More of Botha’s work can be found on his website and Facebook.
Image credits: Photographs by Johan J Botha