The scent of a fresh kill in the wild is like a dinner bell — attracting many hungry opportunists from every corner. When a lion decides he won’t share his meal, one unlucky hyena must fight for his life to escape the jaws of his captor.
Watch the Sighting:
Field guide Dean Robinson was responding to a call about a leopard kill sighting in the Sabi Sands Nature Preserve when his encounter took a dramatic twist. Not one, but two hyenas arrived on the scene, hoping to claim a piece of the kill, but they weren’t the only ones lured by the scent of a fresh kill.
From the shadows, a powerful male lion emerged, unnoticed by the hyenas who focused their attention on the spoils. The situation’s intensity was palpable, and Dean held his breath awaiting to see who would make the first move.
The Brawl Begins
As the two hyenas closed in on the kill, the leopard scrambled up a nearby tree, sensing the danger. Meanwhile, amid this chaotic moment, the lion saw his opportunity to strike.
He snuck up from behind the hyenas and pounced, grabbing one of the hyenas by the back of the neck in a death grip! The hyena struggled and struggled, yelping in pain and distress.
The other hyena watched helplessly as it lacked backup to rescue its pack member. Meanwhile, in the treetops, the leopard watched hopefully — maybe all of the competition would kill each other before any of them had the chance to steal its meal!
An Unbelievable Escape
Minutes passed, and the hyena was clearly losing energy as it struggled against the jaws of the much bigger lion. In either a lapse in judgment or a complete accident, the lion miscalculated the energy left in his opponent and briefly loosened his grip around the neck of the hyena.
The hyena, who had been conserving its last bit of energy for a moment exactly like this, knew it was the last opportunity for survival, and made a run for it. The lion was completely caught off guard and tried his best to pursue the hyena, but the hyena was eventually able to evade recapture.
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In the end, the scene was abandoned by the lion and hyenas, the kill was once again left unattended, and the leopard was left watching in disbelief up in the tree. Dean was shocked by the outcome of this encounter and was reminded that day that the wild is a place of constant competition and survival, where displays of dominance and moments of quick thinking can make the difference between life and death.
Dominance Dictates Survival
In the wild, hyenas and lions frequently rival over food sources, as both are opportunistic carnivores. Against popular belief, rarely, can hyenas overpower lions, no matter the size of their pack.
Because of their larger body size, lions will almost always dominate or take over a kill. When this happens, the hyenas often utilize one of two different strategies to procure a meal.
The first strategy is to continuously harass the lion, by taking turns yipping, lunging, and biting at it. This either forces the lion to abandon its meal, or distracts it for long enough that pack members can to take turns stealing a bite.
The second strategy is for them to take a pacifist approach by lying down in the proximity of the kill, waiting for the lion to become too full or hot, leaving the carcass for them to pick clean.