“I visit the park at least three times a year. For this trip, I was with my mate Bruce, another enthusiast. We love Kruger, but like so many others, we always seem to miss the big sightings, so what happened here was a big surprise!”
“The day was going well! This was our third lion sighting, but you can never have too many of those, so we stuck around with the pride that was on the Lower Sabie Riverbed. Things became interesting when a hippo appeared, and it came from almost nowhere.”
Just a moment after Barry noticed the hippo, it was already trotting toward the lions to chase them off. “The first two lions didn’t take any chances and quickly scattered! But not the rest! No, the other lions decided to challenge, and you can see the chaos unfolding in the video.”
A fully grown hippo is a daunting challenge for any predator, even lions! But the wild is unpredictable, and lions must take what comes their way. That couldn’t have been truer for these 5 lionesses who tried turning a threat into an opportunity.
Their tactics were incredible! After quickly assessing the best option, one of the lionesses distracted the hippo while the rest surrounded it, almost like it was scripted. And it happened so quickly!
When the hippo noticed how it had been outplayed, it started to panic, and that’s when the real chaos began! You can see the desperation as it ran around in circles with its mouth wide open, just trying to grab a lion!
The lions were calm and calculated, so the more panicked it was, the worse it became for the hippo. Eventually, the hippo couldn’t keep up with the lions and their movements, and the lions came closer and closer to jumping on it.
It wasn’t long before the hippo was overwhelmed. Its only grace was the river being just meters away, but challenging lions was definitely not the best idea it ever had! This time, the hippo managed to sneak away with only a few lessons.
“We could hardly believe our eyes as we watched everything unfold. One or two other motorists passed by, shaking their heads in disbelief. Bruce and I were playing a game we devised, giving us points for predicting various sightings or events and losing points for incorrect predictions. This was the first time I predicted an attempted takedown by a cat. Even though it wasn’t technically a hunt, I was super excited to see it unfold, hence the commentary on the video.”