Lion Predation

[Dr Panthera]

Crocodiles:
Predation on crocodilians by lions have been reported from Gir ( Asiatic lions killing mugger crocodiles ) and from different places in Africa ( African lions preying on Nile crocodiles) but overall lions do not seem to like reptilian meat or target crocodiles or other reptiles as regular prey the way this is done by jaguars and to a lesser degree by pumas and leopards.
There was one notable exception the Rufiji river in southern Tanzania, a drop in the ungulate numbers in the 1980's drove lions to seek alternate prey one pride hunted crocodiles, another bushpigs, others chose the gruesome option of becoming man-eaters.
It seems in the crocodiles case, that some lions have realized that crocodiles are exothermic and can not regulate their own body temperature and therefore if they are too cold or too hot they can hardly move and can become easy prey, I noticed similar incidents with a honey badger killing a large python and a leopard killing a medium sized crocodile and the pattern was the same, the reptiles were either too cold or too hot to defend themselves and the mammalian predators took advantage of that. ( Denis-Hout).
This must have been an isolated incident for a particular pride in the 1980's because recent observations do not show any important predation on crocodiles after ungulate numbers recovered. Reply