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Matthew Durell went to the Kruger National Park hoping to get a sighting of the lions there, when he came across something even more remarkable.
He’d seen his lions, but he’d actually managed to find two males that were in the middle of hunting a herd of buffalo. By the time he started recording, they’d already been successful at isolating a young calf, but that’s when the buffalo did something extraordinary.
No Buffalo Left Behind
The rest of the herd seemed unwilling to let the lions have their prize, and they all came over to do what they could to save the calf from the feline jaws that had closed around it.
One of the lions retreated to a safe distance quickly, while the other stood his ground against the herd and stood guard over his next meal. That takes some courage from the lion, when faced with multiple huge buffalo engaged in what’s called “mobbing”.
Mobbing Behavior
Mobbing is the name given to an anti-predator behavior most commonly seen in birds, but has also been noted among a range of other prey species that have vulnerable nests or young.
The social structure of herds lends itself well to mobbing, which consists of multiple animals working together to either attack or harass a threatening predator, to try and make it leave them alone. In buffalo this would usually consist of making a circle around the calves, and exhibiting aggressive or threatening behavior.
Mobbing is different from the fight or flight response which is more focused on individual preservation, as it involves teamwork, and has the goal of protection rather than desperate survival.
The Magnificent Flying Buffalo
In all the chaos, one of the buffalo risks getting closer to the lion than any other, clearly trying to use its big horns to scare it away from the calf. The lion doesn’t show any sign of being intimidated, however.
While it’s typically lionesses that do the majority of the hunting, male lions will help when it comes to larger prey like buffalo, meaning that it’s likely not the first time this lion has faced this kind of behavior.
What probably shocked the lion more, was when the buffalo caught the calf’s leg with its horns, and catapulted it through the air, away from the lion and back towards the herd.
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If It Works, Then It’s Not Stupid
What’s even more remarkable about this moment, is that it actually works. It’s not clear if the buffalo was sending its calf flying intentionally, or if it was going for the lion.
It does look like it could have been trying to hook the calf with its horns to drag it to safety, but in the moment it managed to fling the calf through the air instead, but either way the calf was able to rejoin the herd where they could keep it safe from further attacks.
An unlucky night for the lions.