sad documentary

last night I viewed a documentary on t.v. about a lioness that adopts an orix calf, its sweet, the two bond and wander around together for about two weeks. The lioness finally lets the calf wander on its own, when a male lion ambushes them and drags the whimpering calf away. I couldn't help but cry my brains out. It turns out the lioness adopted on seperate occassions up to 12 calfs over about twelve months, some escaped her and some perished due to lack of milk or other lions coming along. The lioness became withdrawn when she lost that first calf and didn't seem to integrate much with the other lions.
The local village folk, knew of this lioness and she has become folklore among them. The lady who conducted the filming and narration of the documentary said that they think the lioness lost her cubs to a lion when she was younger and began adopting calfs as an alternate for motherhood.
I still feel sad about it.