It’s a dangerous world out there, even for the most dangerous predators at the top of their respective food chains. Lions are immensely powerful big cats, but even they can sometimes run afoul of other bigger and stronger animals.
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Mischa Fernandes spotted this lion’s carcass, and the other animals that came to visit it, and sent the footage in to Latest Sightings. It was a grisly scene as this once mighty creature became just another source of food.
The King Has Fallen
It was unclear what had caused the mighty lion to fall. Aside from a small wound on its face there was nothing obvious that would have signaled this lion’s defeat.
Fall though it had, into its final resting place in the long grass which appeared to almost absorb the carcass slightly, turning it into just another feature of the landscape.
It was easy for other animals to locate, however, and it became a bit of a spectacle to others just passing by. Elephants, other lions, and a hyena all paused by the corpse for their own separate reasons.
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Standing In Vigil
Elephants have a slightly curious relationship with death. They have close emotional bonds within their herds, often composed of members of the same family, and they’re also capable of greater emotional intelligence than other animals.
When a member of their own herd dies elephants go through their own grieving processes, and sometimes revisit the site later. Of course, lions might well be the cause of death for younger elephants in the first place.
Even so, when some elephants came across the carcass, one of them paused and stood for a moment observing it. It’s impossible to know what it was thinking.
Perhaps this elephant was gloating at the passing of a threat that posed a risk to any calves in the herd, or maybe it was taking a moment to honor an opponent, or just canvassing the area to make sure whatever killed it wasn’t still around.
Meat Is Meat
Any honoring of the carcass, if that was even what was taking place, was short lived. Once the lion had died its body just became more meat for others that needed it and carnivores won’t turn down a free meal.
The elephants had the most interesting reaction to the carcass, but they definitely weren’t the only ones to come sniffing around. It appeared that it was another lion that took the first chunk out of the body, although it’s not known if this lion was from the same pride.
Cannibalism might not be something animals want to engage in, but this living lion was hungry, it might have failed to hunt anything successfully, and meat is meat.
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Sudden Competition
The hyena that came sniffing around shortly after was likely thinking the same thing. All it had to do was work its way past the lion feeding greedily to get a morsel for itself.
This was easier said than done, as the lion was prepared to defend its free meal, and chased away the hyena. An ignominious end perhaps, for the lion, but the cycle of nature continues unbroken.