Mother tigress almost drowns own cub trying to hide it underwater from male tiger

A tigress in the famed Ranthambore National Park in north India was filmed almost drowning her own cub, trying to protect it from a male that wandered by at a watering hole.

The video, caught by tourist driver Sajid Ali on June 5, shows the tigress T-60, seen in the water, in a standoff with the larger male tiger T-57, with T-60 pressing her cub underwater to keep them out of sight of T-57.

This continued for a few minutes as T-60 tried to conceal her frantically flailing cub from the dangerous male, before eventually letting them free as T-57 began to wander away, with the tigress' risky strategy seemingly having paid off.

The cub, estimated to be only four-months-old and first seen in April, seemed very distressed by its near-death experience, but reportedly recovered after a few minutes.