Food and hunting


Battle for the prey




Young elephant who was the prey of lions in Savuti




A lion and a cub eating a buffalo
The lion hunting generally in the dark or the cool hours of the morning darkness and milder temperatures are an advantage. Moreover, the lion is idle 20 to 21 hours per day, from 10 to 15 hours sieste. It consumes an average of 7 kg of meat per jour. However, if hunting was good and if she missed a few meals, the lioness can swallow up to 30 kg of meat at once, while the male can swallow up to 40 kg. The lions hunt only when their food supply is exhausted.

The main prey of cattle are large, medium and small size:
antelopes of all sizes of Lechwe waterbuck, kudu great, nyala, black roan, oryx, eland, hartebeest, wildebeest, oribi, dik-dik, steenboks.

He also hunts buffalo, young elephants, warthogs, zebras, giraffes, rabbits, birds and sometimes fish. In some areas, lions specialize even for a specific type of prey. And large groups of lions, about 30 individuals, regularly attack adult elephants. In wetlands of the Savuti and Linyanti, they may even attack hippos. But generally most of hippos, rhinos, elephants are too large because of their stature, because lions usually flee the angry elephants and rhinos.

The very fast antelope, such as gazelles, hartebeest, springbok and impala are generally excluded from their prey, lions are forced to hunt animals slower and fatter.

Around the age of two years, the cubs learn the art of hunting and go to three years with their mother chasing a first time.

In the savanna, open environment, the lions are easily spotted by their prey. In addition, a vigorous animal can overcome a Lonely Hunter. A young Cape buffalo was seen fighting with a lion for 90 minutes to finally lose not only its tail. The hunt for two or more thus offers a better chance of success and allows you to take impressive. Lionesses provide 80 to 90% of the catch when hunting. Males, heavier, slower and more easily detectable by their corpulence and their manes, are less effective.

The lions and lionesses use different techniques depending on terrain, their preferences and methods of human prey. The lioness hunting usually at dawn or dusk, or at the cover of darkness. On the lookout, hidden behind the tall grass, waiting for an animal has fallen head to graze, showing signs of inattention or is in isolated position. This may lead a quiet approach up to 30 meters, then load and projected violently prey on land. Weighing all his weight on her, she seized her by the throat. Trachea and esophagus severed, the victim dies within minutes. The lionesses often keep their prey by the muzzle until it suffocates.

When they hunt in packs, the lionesses encircle the prey or the herd, and come close together, they crawl on his belly often several hundred meters to their prey, in which case the environment is used most intelligently as possible to camouflage themselves. A distance of about 30 meters is reached, then the prey is loaded. Each jump is about 6 meters long and can be double in length and four meters in hauteur. The prey is then killed by a sharp bite to the neck or neck so as to reach the jugular vein or carotid artery.

Because lionesses hunt in open spaces, common hunting increases the chance of successfully hitting a prey. They also refer the prey between them. In addition, the prey in the group can be more easily defended against thieves like wild dogs and spotted hyenas.

The percentage of successful attempts also varies depending on the species hunted: about 14% in the case of antelopes (hartebeest, waterbuck, kudu, eland, hartebeest, oryx), 38% for zebra and wildebeest and 47% for warthogs. Night hunting results in 33% success rate, against 21% for the day-fighter, and attacks in the bushes (41%) were 3.5 times more likely to succeed than attacks on open ground (12%) - based on studies. In times of drought, lions will even eat dead animals from disease or remains of other predators. In the Serengeti Park in Tanzania, where most ungulates have migrated in search of tender grass and water, the lions attack the sedentary animals: giraffes, warthogs, small mammals (dwarf antelopes, rabbits), birds , young snakes or crocodiles. The nights of dry seasons, the lionesses hunt impala sometimes at night; very common African antelopes living in semi-forest, sedentary, fast, agile and alert the day, but they are more vulnerable in the dark at because of their views clearly below that of beasts.

Males of the group participate in hunting rarely, for example if very large prey are attacked like buffaloes, giraffes and elephants Preadult; their main role is to protect the company of other lions. After a success, the group hierarchy comes into effect: the male may eat first, then follow the females in high places and finally small. There is rarely, with the corpse, the struggles of rank where group members inflict significant injury.

Often, the lions are brought to eating carrion. Male lions who were driven out of a clan are forced to feed exclusively on this diet. This leads them to hunt their loot other scavengers such as leopards. Often, the lion must also spotted hyenas hunt their prey.