Juan Carlos Mimó Perez's Image

On a photographic safari in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve, Juan Carlos was watching a pride of lions resting under some low shrubs.

Any action seemed unlikely as lions are renowned for resting up to 20 hours a day, becoming most active at night. Juan Carlos was enjoying trying to focus on the face of one young male. ‘I am always interested in the small details,’ he says, ‘though the vegetation here was making it difficult to get a clear shot’. To his surprise, he spotted a mouse crouched calmly under the lion’s paw. With his camera steadied by a beanbag on the window frame of his vehicle, Juan Carlos swiftly composed his shot. He achieved the perfect low angle thanks to the gentle slope where the lion was lying. His quick reactions were rewarded with this tightly framed moment of peace between one of Africa’s smallest mammals and one of its largest – a nod to Aesop’s fable The Lion and the Mouse, which teaches mutual dependence regardless of size or status. A few seconds later, the mouse quietly left.