Lion pictures and videos

[Sully]

4 lions kill 4 buffalo at Djuma
Posted on 22 December, 2015 by Djuma Private Game Reserve  in Animal Encounters
Posted: December 22, 2015
 
Written by: Ryan Thomson
We were on a late afternoon drive with guide Taxon from Djuma Private Game Reserve in the Sabi Sand and had just left an amazing sighting of a leopard on a kudu kill. We rounded the corner to find four male lions walking down the road.

*This image is copyright of its original author

We followed them to a waterhole, where they had a quick drink of water and were moving away when they noticed a herd of buffalo walking towards the waterhole. The wind and light were both in the lions’ favour, and they had instinctively positioned themselves, using the vehicles as cover.

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

As the buffalo reached the water, we could see the lions were fixated on two youngsters towards the back. All of a sudden two of the lions took off and headed in a straight line for the buffalo. It took a couple of seconds before the buffalo noticed the lion, but by then it was too late. The two lions grabbed the one youngster and immediately locked onto its throat.

*This image is copyright of its original author

But we noticed the hunt wasn’t finished yet.
The two other lions had continued to chase the herd and one of the lions that was on the youngster joined them. They continued chasing the buffalo until we lost sight of them as they entered a thicket.
We drove in the direction that the buffalo had run, and we saw that two of the lions had managed to catch a heavily pregnant buffalo cow and were fighting to bring her down. Eventually they brought her to the ground and proceeded to put her in a chokehold until she died.

*This image is copyright of its original author

While this was going on, the fourth lion had managed to catch a third buffalo, another youngster, but was having difficulty killing it. So once the adult female was dead, one of the lions left her to go help the fourth lion kill his buffalo.

*This image is copyright of its original author

When we returned the following morning, we saw that the fetus of the pregnant buffalo had been removed and eaten, so I guess one could argue that four lions killed four buffalo.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Reply