Most predators have to put in a serious amount of work to catch their food. From stalking likely prey, to battling larger animals in a competition for survival, these predators have to put in a lot of effort for a meal.
But, for some lucky lions, there might be a tasty snack just lying on the ground in the long grass waiting for a hungry cat to come along and snap it up.
Curious Cats
For any predator to come across an unsuspecting animal they can eat is a nice surprise, which can make a considerable difference for them. Even if the animal is only small enough to be a light snack, it’s free energy which can make the difference between survival and death.
This pride of lions appeared to have come across something very small indeed, so small that the camera couldn’t even see it through the long grass it was trying to use as cover, and it took them a bit of time to work out what to do with it.
The big cats looked particularly unsure as they circled the small bird, two of them at first, but then a single male keeping an eye on the unexpected bounty, making up its mind whether or not to try and eat it.
Not As Easy As All That
While a discovery like this meant that the lion might be able to wait a bit longer before expending a significant amount of energy in a hunt, it clearly wasn’t all going to be positive.
A single bird might not be able to put up much of a fight against a male lion, but neither was it going to surrender itself as prey without at least trying to survive.
The male lion had its head lowered down in the grass, likely sniffing the bird as it prepared to make a meal out of it, when it was forced to rapidly jerk its head back from the attacking wings and claws.
Mismatched Competition
From the very beginning, this fight could only have one winner, but most animals have an aversion to pain, and despite all its ferocity, the lion had soft skin on its nose and face that would be very susceptible to a sharp beak and desperate claws.
The lion would likely have managed to make short work of the bird if it could hold it still long enough to actually kill it, but the frantic flapping of black wings showed that the bird wasn’t being particularly cooperative prey.
This prey seemed to be putting up such a good fight that the second lion returned to join the first, as one just wasn’t enough to bring the angry bird down.
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A Foregone Conclusion
It may have been able to go down in a blaze of defiant glory, but the bird had no real hope against two lions. It’s not clear why it hadn’t just flown away, but it’s possible it had a preexisting injury which made it unable to make a quick escape.
If that was the case, then this injury also made it a quick meal for the lions, as one of them set about turning the bird into a quick and tasty snack.
Although the bird never fully emerges from the long grass, the size of its wings suggests that it would only make a meal for a single lion, so the other members of the pride would still have to find their own dinner.