Battle of african lions

Despite the fact that the most dangerous animals on safari are elephants, lions are perceived much worse. Huge, powerful animals whose muscles "shimmer" when walking. Leo does not hide his eyes; he looks directly into his eyes, and you understand that under other circumstances he could have become his prey. At first it was, to put it mildly, restless from such views, but when we saw that the lions were doing their own thing and did not pay any attention to us, it became easier.

And on the last day we were lucky to see all the power and strength of the king of animals - we witnessed the fierce battle of the four lions not for life, but for death ...

Lions usually hunt at night. In sunlight, their activity can be seen either early in the morning or late in the evening. During the day, when the sun is shining, they simply wallow in the shade:

In Botswana, on the way to the camp, we came across a whole pride. Cats carefully looked at us, but did not show any interest at all:

Then we met the lions in South Africa. Our pathfinder found traces, and we went in search of. After a long car ride through the bushes and the windbreak, we met four lionesses on the hunt:

We drove up close to them - from me to the lion's mouth was two or three meters. For some time, the lionesses studied us, but very soon lost interest and returned to the hunt.

In this frame, the lioness sniffs the air and tries to smell the prey. It was a very beautiful sight: the cat gently, slowly fingering its paws, stepped forward and sniffed the evening air:

The guide said: if the cats rush in different directions, then they sensed the prey and ran to surround it. He put out the lights and turned off the ignition so as not to interfere with the hunt. We sat in absolute darkness, in the forest, realizing that there were four deadly lionesses nearby. It was a pretty strong impression:

After 15 minutes, the ranger said that the lionesses either lost track or changed their minds about hunting - in general, they went to rest. Turning on the lights, we really saw lionesses lounging around our car. They rolled on the grass, lay and yawned:

The next day we searched for lions for a long time, but in the end we found:

They lay in some bushes and rested:

Scene "At the reception at the ENT":

No matter how scary it looks - this is just the second phase of yawning (when the mouth closes):

But the most interesting thing happened on the last day, right in front of the plane.

We again attacked the trail of lions and began to hunt them down. On the ground, besides us, there were several more cars, and at some point, our colleagues told on the radio that the lions had been found, but some strange mess was unfolding. We arrived and saw four males. It turned out that there was a territorial showdown: four adult lions entered the territory of three young and decided to drive them away from their homes. Two young run away with rhinestones - one big lion chased after them - and the last ones attacked the rest.

The lion began to run away, strangers began to catch up with him, and we rushed after the whole company after:

It was rather risky to drive along forest paths at full speed: we held onto the handrails tightly so as not to fly out of the car:

At some point, the lions left the road and ran away from us into the bushes. We could not drive after them and drove around. A loud growl came from behind the bushes:

Soon we found them: a young lion lay wounded, and adult males sat around him:

About 15 minutes later the movement began: two large lions tried to approach the wounded man, but he roared, and they retreated:

Wounds were visible on the young lion. The guide said that, most likely, these young lions are renegades who were kicked out of the prides. He did not specify the reason for the discrimination.

The wounds were unlikely to be fatal, but the lion's eyes were already extinguished:

It was clear that adults were just waiting for the moment to attack:

The wounded man carefully watched his executioners and from time to time poked in their direction:

We also carefully watched those and others:

Tension hung in the air: the lions slowly surrounded the victim, and we waited for the outcome of events.

Everything happened very quickly: at one point, three rushed to the wounded Simba. The young lion understood that he was fighting for his life: he chose one lion and went on the attack:

Surprisingly, the other two retreated:

The young lion tried to hit an adult male, but he dodged. The muzzle of the offender at that moment was very reminiscent of Skar - a bad lion from the cartoon "The Lion King":

This time the lion fought back.

He continued to lie, and the other lions returned to standby:

Unfortunately, we had to leave, as we were already late for the plane. The guide said that the lion has little chance of escape, and sooner or later those three will finish their work.

When we returned to Moscow, the first thing we wrote to the ranger was a letter asking them to tell us how the story ended. The guide replied that in the evening at this place they found a lot of elephant tracks. Apparently, elephants came to this place and dispersed the entire cat company. And judging by the footsteps, the trinity went to one side, and the wounded to the other. That is, the young lion took advantage of the situation and gave the tear!