VIDEO: Battle at Kruger – Lions vs. Buffaloes vs. Crocodiles
Kill or be killed! Eat or be eaten!
That’s how things work in the wild.
Survival is a tough job and only the strongest ones manage to live!
loading...
This video shows a brutal fight between a pride of lions, a herd of buffaloes and two crocodiles at a watering hole in South Africa’s Kruger National Park.
According to Live Science, crocodiles are large reptiles found in tropical regions of Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. They are members of the order Crocodilia, which also includes caimans, gharials and alligators.
There are 13 species of crocodiles, so there are many different sizes of crocodile. The smallest crocodile is the dwarf crocodile. It grows to about 5.6 feet (1.7 meters) in length and weighs 13 to 15 pounds (6 to 7 kilograms). The largest crocodile is the saltwater crocodile. The largest one ever found was 20.24 feet (6.17 m) long. They can weigh up to 2,000 pounds (907 kg).
Crocodiles are carnivores, which mean they eat only meat. In the wild, they feast on fish, birds, frogs and crustaceans. At the zoo, they eat small animals that have already been killed for them, such as rats, fish or mice. They also eat live locusts.
In the wild, crocodiles will clamp down on their prey with their massive jaws, crush it, and then they will swallow the prey whole. They do not have the capability to chew or break off small pieces of food like other animals.
According to Out to Africa, mature male lions are unique among the cat species for the thick mane of brown or black hair that encircles the head and neck. The tails of lions end in a horny spine covered with a tuft of hair.
Females do 85 to 90 percent of the pride’s hunting, while the males patrol the territory and protect the pride, for which they take the “lion’s share” of the females’ prey. When resting, lions seem to enjoy good fellowship with lots of touching, head rubbing, licking and purring. But when it comes to food, each lion looks out for itself.
loading...
Lions are the laziest of the big cats. They usually spend 16 to 20 hours a day sleeping and resting, devoting the remaining hours to hunting, courting or protecting their territory. They keep in contact with one another by roaring loud enough to be heard up to five miles away.
The pride usually remains intact until the males are challenged and successfully driven away or killed by other males, who then take over. Not all lions live in prides. At maturity, young males leave the units of their birth and spend several years as nomads before they become strong enough to take over a pride of their own.
Some never stop wandering and continue to follow migrating herds; but the nomadic life is much more difficult, with little time for resting or reproducing.
Within the pride, the territorial males are the fathers of all the cubs. When a lioness is in heat, a male will join her, staying with her constantly. The pair usually mates for less than a minute, but it does so about every 15 to 30 minutes over a period of four to five days.
Loading...