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Lion Predation
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 (05-28-2014, 10:03 PM)'sanjay' Wrote: Though, There is no information about whether lions have killed rhinos, but i strongly believe that the pride of 17 lions are more than enough to kill adult male white Rhino. Reason is that lion had already killed elephant, hippo and giraffe which are among the earth largest and heaviest land animal on earth. Yes a pride of lions is a formidable force. Im yet to see an account of lions directly killing an adult rhino, I would like to see it if someone have it. Here are some lions/rhino interaction Probably was this Rhino killed by an other Rhino in a battle in Krugerpark.Staff members took the horn off to prevent poachers for taking off the horn. The Lions found the dead Rhino and took the meat. Lion family at Rhino kill. Rhino looked like it was poached (no horns, no ears etc)  *This image is copyright of its original author 
If lions are able to take down elephant they will be able to take down Rhino. There is no animal that a lion pride (if large enough) can't take down on land.
Would be interesting to see, I'd imagine it'd look a lot like them taking on a hippo. 
In groups they can take down any land animal in africa. Alone they pretty much can tackle everything except healthy adult elephants and such. But there has been cases of single lions tackling and killing hippos, buffalos, giraffe, and I believe there has been cases of lions single handedly killing black rhinos. I've read a couple accounts, some in books and some posted by other members awhile ago.
"Ritchie (1963) stated that young rhinos are sometimes killed by lions. He had also heard of an old bull being killed by two lions but conversely had seen two rhinos drive three lionesses off an ostrich kill." "N. H. M. Taberer, a former has reported two male lions attacking a almost full grown rhino. Taberer heard the commotion, and the rhino was not yet dead when he reached the spot. One of the forlegs was broken and it had to he shot." ~Wild cats of the World. Those accounts are with two lions though. If I ever come across those other accounts again ill post them.
That is a cow, not a bull.
Just so you know, there is not a single account of a lone lion taking down a Bull Buffalo, Rhino, Hippo, etc.. I am sure a lion could take down a older or subadult bull, but never a healthy adult. Here is another male lion vs a cow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=808Q9DE2DoA Buffalo cows are plenty of a challenge, but a big prime bull will be too much for most if not all lions.
I don't believe I mentioned that buffalo was a bull. However to what you said, Yes there are infact accounts of single lion/lioness killing bull buffalos(health or unhealthy?). I find them to be easier kill for lions sometimes, on account males will venture off alone or in smaller groups while cows normally stay in huge herds.
Single lions have killed adult giraffe, so I wouldn't see how a bull buffalo would be that much worse. This male here hunting a bull, however I cannot find the story, so I cannot tell you if he killed the buffalo.  *This image is copyright of its original author Right now I don;t have the time to find the single accounts, I'll post them when I do. It would be nice if you could give lions credit where credit is due, lions are great hunters and have killed large animals in groups and alone. [img]images/smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] 
I agree that lion are capable of killing bull buffalo. I have seen videos where single lioness kills single female but fully grown buffalo. Lioness also killed female giraffe by leaping from ground to directly their long neck, she hanged herself on the giraffe neck and after some time giraffe comes down.
Lions have developed suffocation killing technique, which i didn't saw so far in any other animals killing technique.
Girraffe are dangerous, but IMO a easier kill than a adult bull buffalo. They are unstable and as soon as you put weight on their hind legs, they tend to go down, and they have no hope when down.
A buffalo on the other hand is much sturdier standing and harder to bring down, even when down, they are able to rest and regain strength to fight again. Not so with a Giraffe. I have seen females kill female buffalo, but the buffalo didn't appear to be large or full grown. But even so, a cow is not comparable to a prime Bull. To this day, after many debates, with numerous people, I have yet to see a single confirmed account of a lone lion, male or female, kill a bull buffalo. I have seen attempts, kills by multiple lions etc, but never a one v one kill. If any of you have anything, I would love to see it. But if not, I have to stand by the idea that Bull buffalo are out of the range of a lone lion. Lions are viewed to often for no account to exist if it does happen. 
I agree with you Pckts ... there are no reliable accounts but the reason might be something else. It is easy to understand that any predator prefers easier meals than the tougher ones . So lions tend to target calves and cows more often than bulls.. No predator would want to let the easy targets go an tussle the tougher ones.
I guess it depends, When Lions have to take care of Whole Pride then they tend to catch big preys. A big Hunt will feed the entire pride. In some documentary I have seen that During Dry Season Lions mostly hunt big prey like Elephants, Buffalo and Giraffe. Its obvious that small group of lion or lone lion will not go for big prey reason may be both, Its dangerous to take risk and there is no need to feed a big pride
(05-29-2014, 11:18 PM)'Pradyumna' Wrote: I agree with you Pckts ... there are no reliable accounts but the reason might be something else. It is easy to understand that any predator prefers easier meals than the tougher ones . So lions tend to target calves and cows more often than bulls.. No predator would want to let the easy targets go an tussle the tougher ones.True, but even so, You see some specific cats that become specialized and actually prefer to hunt larger and more dangerous animals. But obviously more often than not, the predatory is going to want the path of least resistance.
"Prey on species within a weight range of 190–550 kg, The most preferred weight of lion prey is 350 kg."
However like most big cats they tend to pick out weaknesses, sick, injured, alone, ect. There are certain regions where lion normally hunt large game, while in other places they will hunt smaller game. This can be said for many different specie of cat, depending on region and prey availability. Like I mentioned, lions hunting buffalo, cows is very risky. Herds can be as many as 500 or more strong. Bulls normally nomadic and venture on their own, i.e. easier targets. We've all seen videos and accounts of singe lionesses killing buffalo cows alone, I wouldn't doubt a larger stronger male wouldn't be able to kill a bull. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RziPtcspGDM I'm sure you've seen this video of the male lion taking down the buffalo bull. The male was probably old, still none the less the lion dropped the bull by himself and suffocated the bull by himself. "Amongst the pride are 2 lionesses and 4 cubs. They killed an adult buffalo bull and 3 calves early in the month, as well as another buffalo, and finally in the latter part of the month pulled down a young hippo after an epic 3 hour battle (guest got to bed at 4am) " "A pride of 2 adult male lions killed a buffalo bull close to Johns Pan" "One of the Kubu male lions took down a huge buffalo cow as the herd" "The two lionesses had killed a large male buffalo" (05-30-2014, 01:23 AM)'TheLioness' Wrote: "Prey on species within a weight range of 190–550 kg, The most preferred weight of lion prey is 350 kg." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RziPtcspGDM Once again, we are talking about a Lone lion vs A Lone Bull. That is 3 brothers vs a single buffalo. Not only the brothers, but a lioness is seen attacking him before, so I am sure he was already exhausted from dealing with the pride up until that point. None of the other accounts are of lone lions either. I have seen these, I still would like to see a single account of 1 lion taking down a bull. Here is the only actual video of a lone male lion vs a lone buffalo. Probably a bull buffalo, but doesn't look to be as large as the full grown bulls I have seen. But you can see, the lion was able to get a strangle hold and still gets tossed around by the bull. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=808Q9DE2DoA 
About this prase: "Prey on species within a weight range of 190–550 kg, The most preferred weight of lion prey is 350 kg."
We most take very much care with it, this study used mostly kills and close to nothing of scats. That is the problem with African studies, mostly ALL use only kills, wich inflate greatelly the results. Besides, in the same document is stated that there was not posible to know if those kills were from a single lion or the entire pride. In that case, I think that all these figures correspond for the entire pride. |
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