Watch the sighting here:
Peter Craig-Cooper filmed this amusing mix up and sent his record of the event to Latest Sightings. He filmed it from Marloth Park, on the banks of the Crocodile River on the southern border of Kruger National Park.
Lion regulars
In his accompanying story, Peter said that while staying at Marloth Park, he’d often seen lions on the opposite bank. As such, when he spotted them on this occasion, he was excited to see they were on the prowl.
While the lioness — just visible in the lower centre of the above image — remained hidden, the male did not attempt to hide.
Approaching impala
When a herd of impala approached the lions, they went into hunting mode. While the lioness remained hidden, the male started trotting into position.
Change of direction
Something seems to have spooked the impalas, which ran towards the waiting lions. Consequently, the male lion quickly changed direction to head them off.
His target was a pair of impala ewes, which happened to be running straight toward the still hidden female. The first impala ran in a straight line, somehow evading the lioness as it rose from its hiding place.
In the above image, note the lioness in the bottom left of the frame, and how close she was to the first impala. Also, note how the second impala has changed direction, causing the male lion to do the same.
Collision course
By now, the lioness was locked on the second impala and sprang in pursuit.
By this stage, the male had abandoned his pursuit, having been outmanoeuvred by the impala. With this, he found himself directly in the path of the charging lioness.
With scarcely a moment to react, all the male could do was dig his paws in and pull out of the imminent contact with the lioness.
Subsequently, the lioness lost her momentum and decided to abandon the chase.
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Disbelief
As the dust settled, the lioness looked back at her mate, as if in disbelief that he had so completely disrupted her hunt.
There followed an awkward moment, when it looked like the fearsome apex predators were taking a moment to reflect on their failures.
But, as the lioness looks towards the camera, you can tell who she thinks is to blame. Meanwhile he looks away, possibly too embarrassed to face the paparazzi.
Not always on top of their game
Although lions are apex predators, sitting at the top of the African predator hierarchy, this video shows that things don’t always go their way.
As much as 70% of all attempted hunts fail, compared to just 20% for African wild dogs.
Factors that affect success include group size, time of day/night, prey type, terrain and motivation.
In lion society, males actually do very little hunting. Instead, they spend much of their time patrolling and defending their territory.
Even so, both males and females spend the vast majority of their time sleeping — up to 23 hours per day. Given this comical display, can we assume they dream about better results than this?