Competition in the Kruger can be a fierce affair, as many of these animals have territories, food, and other requirements which overlap. If one animal benefits from a resource such as prey, then that’s one less animal for their competitors to potentially hunt and eat.
Kerry caught this moment on camera where a pride of lions showed an unlucky hyena exactly what they thought of having to put up with this kind of competition, and it was not a pretty sight.
In A Very Bad Situation
By the time Kerry started recording the hyena was already down. The lionesses had bloody faces and they’d already wounded their enemy quite badly.
Several lionesses surrounded it, and one was holding it down on the ground with its jaw. This was not a good place for the unfortunate hyena to be, and it meant its time with the living was measured only in minutes.
A single adult lion would give a group of hyenas pause when it comes to a fight, but this one had the numbers severely against it, as it appeared to be completely alone.
Far From Friends
These two animals are intense enemies, unlikely to get along with each other even at the best of times. Lions often find the presence of hyenas to be intolerable, while hyenas know that a hunting lion is an opportunity for them to steal a meal.
Hyenas will also prey on lion cubs, when they’re particularly young, and if they’re not stealing food from the big cats then it’s because they’re hunting that same food themselves.
As such, hyenas are a direct threat to a lion’s existence whether they’re alone or in numbers, preying on the young, and causing the adults to have less opportunities to find food. This makes fighting and killing each other a necessity.
A Daring Escape
It looked like multiple lions were trying to dig their teeth and claws into this hyena as they started pulling it apart, but this confusion gave their target a perfect opportunity to make a sudden escape.
As the hyena began galloping away, it took the lionesses a moment or two before they actually realized that it was trying to escape and for them to start running after it.
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At Least One More Day
That momentary hesitation allowed the hyena to get a good headstart in the ensuing chase. Despite its wounds, it had a sudden burst of speed, no doubt fueled by pure adrenaline as it sprinted away from the lions.
For their part, the lions gave up the chase rather quickly, after a half-hearted attempt to follow the hyena for only a few meters. Perhaps they reasoned that putting the fear of God into it was just as good as killing it.
The hyena managed to escape, but it looked like it had been seriously wounded, so its survival was uncertain. If its wounds didn’t kill it then it would live to see another day, but it would probably seriously reconsider entering that pride’s territory again.