When a hippo came rushing in to fight the Lubyelubye lion pride on the Lower Sabie riverbed in the Kruger National Park, five lionesses saw an opportunity to hunt and challenged it back.
Barry Smith, a frequent visitor to the park, filmed this epic wildlife interaction and shared it with Latest Sightings. Smith, who visits the park three times a year and said he always misses the ‘big sightings’, was surprised.
“The day was going well. This was our third lion sighting, but you can never have too many of those, so we stuck around with the pride,” he told Latest Sightings.
Things became interesting when a hippo appeared and started trotting towards seven lions to chase them off.
While the first two didn’t take any chances and quickly scattered, the others were up for the challenge, turning it into a hunt.
Their tactics were incredible, said Smith! After quickly assessing the best option, one of the lionesses distracted the hippo while the rest surrounded it.
When the hippo knew it had been outplayed, it started to panic, and chaos ensued. In desperation, it ran around in circles with its mouth open, trying to grab a lion.
Eventually, the hippo couldn’t keep up with the lions and their tactics, and the lions came closer, jumping on it.
It wasn’t long before the hippo was overwhelmed.
Its saving grace was the river, just metres away.
