Lions are considered an apex predator for very good reasons. Their size and strength gives them an advantage of their prey, but also over other competing predators that might get in their way.
Kerry Balaam from Kruger Pride Safaris caught a meeting of these competing predators on camera when a pride of lions caught an unfortunate hyena that was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In A Bad Situation
From the very beginning of Kerry’s footage things were looking bad for the hyena. There’s never a good reason for a lion pride to catch you, especially if you’re in competition for food and resources.
The lions had bloodied the hyena’s flanks with their claws and teeth, and it looked like they were in the process of finishing it for good. With their strength the big cats had forced the smaller animal down to the ground where they could kill it.
This was the culmination of fairly standard hunting tactics for the lions, using their weight and strength to force their opponents to the ground where they are in full control, and then targeting vulnerable areas like the neck.
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A Desperate Turn Of Events
Life, for the hyena, had shortened from a matter of years to only a matter of seconds. With multiple lions bearing down on it, its own teeth and claws would be insufficient to fight them off and these animals were long past using deterrents.
The lion’s bloodstained maws were testament to the damage they had already caused to their foe, but right at the last second the tenacious hyena denied them their ultimate victory.
It wasn’t clear exactly what happened through the feline bodies surrounding the hyena, but somehow it slipped free from its captors as they were readying themselves for the final blow, and it ran.
Fight Or Flight
Typically animals like these would avoid an actual fight as much as possible. Perhaps in this instance it’s more accurate to say the hyena would had avoided this fight as much as possible.
With their array of advantages the lions would probably have been more open to this confrontation than the hyena, and more confident that they could win.
For the hyena, this fight could only have ended one way so it would likely have been trying to escape before the lions caught it. But it had escaped again now, and it was absolutely unable to waste the chance it had somehow been given.
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Flight Was The Only Option
The lions were arrogant in their own assurance of victory and wasted a few precious moments of the chase in sheer surprise at the audacity of this hyena, which they’d considered already defeated, as it got up and ran away.
The big cats quickly gathered themselves and leapt into pursuit but this hyena was running for its life and despite its grievous wounds it was able to outpace them and disappear into the distance.
Lions are better at bursts of speed rather than endurance, and the two lionesses chasing the hyena didn’t have an option other than to break off and watch their enemy escape them for good. The hyena’s wounds were severe, and whether it survived or not is unknown.
