I've seen a few examples recently showing the strength of the mothering instinct, i.e., showing that it may be even stronger for some predators than their instinct to kill and eat. E.g., a leopard with a cub killed a baboon (for food) only to discover it had a baby, so she snuggled up with the baby baboon overnight trying to keep it alive. And a cat with kittens that adopted a baby duckling.