Everyone remembers that scene from the lion king where Simba is cornered by hyenas, where Mufasa appears out of nowhere and comes to the rescue. This sighting almost feels exactly the same!
Amber Soames, a very lucky 19-year old student, was near Satara, in the Kruger National Park, last month when she filmed this action-packed sighting.
Amber explains the story to LatestSightings.com: “After stopping for Coffee at Tshokwane picnic site, we heard from a man passing that there were lions on a wildebeest kill, just 5kms away. So we definitely decided to head straight there.
When we arrived at the sighting, feeling amped and totally unaware of what was about to happen, I found the right spot just on the bend of the loop where I could look down at the lion on the kill.
When I first got there, there were only a few (+- 5) hyenas, but after about 10 minutes, the lion was completely surrounded by them. I could see cars a just a bit further up the road, which I assumed were looking at the rest of the pride, which I later found out that they were.
I watched a hyena for a while running around with the Wildebeest’s leg and then noticed that the other Hyenas were also interested in this leg. By this time, I’m extremely entertained watching the Hyenas fight over a leg whilst listening to the lion chomp on the remaining wildebeest kill, still unaware of what was to come.
Not long after fighting for the leg, the hyenas made a beeline for the lion and made all sorts of noise indicating that they were up for a challenge. This was when I knew something awesome was going to go down.
One by one they went for the lion, biting his rear and trying their best to get the kill but the lion was not having it and gave a good fight, as 1 male lion against 12 hyenas could, for his kill. Soon after this started I noticed that the rest of the pride, a few 100 meters away, heard his moans and came running to help. This was when the females charged at the hyenas.
This all happened so quickly but wow! It was so awesome.
I became excited as the suspense grew, I just knew that some sort of drama was going to unfold and I was so ready for it.
The sighting ended with the hyenas running for the hills, the lions regrouped and fell asleep in the riverbed.
—WATCH—
For other visitors to the park that are at a sighting like this, the advice I would give is to just have patience and persistence because when there are numerous predators at the same scene, the action of some sort has got to give way.
