Bizarre lion behaviour in the Okavango Delta

Four male lions attack a lioness and eat her, while she is alive. I have never heard of such behavior, but apparently it does happen. Lions kill other lions for many various reasons, but this cannilbalistic act was a shock to me.

Source

In 20 years of safari guiding, I have never come across such strange behavior of male lions towards a female and despite total submission, continued to kill her in an act of cannibalism partaken by all. This was more than a territorial dispute, it was totally abnormal lion behavior.”

Video clip (Warning: Disturbing)

Video

Maybe a hormonal inbalance in the female gave off the wrong kind of pheromone, making the males confuse her for something else?

Looks like a lion, smells like a gazelle, lunch time.

Just a thought.

Certainly bizarre.

reply to post by KaelemJames


Thanks for this Kaelem, I have forwarded to a friend Lise Hansen who is head of the "Caprivi Carnivore Project" in the Caprivi Strip, if she comes back with any interesting info I will update!

You may know of her, known as the "Cheetah Lady! Only she's now more into Hyaenas than Cheetahs!

It's certainly odd.

Usually it's the Females that do the hunting and killing, which makes it even stranger.

Perhaps the Lioness was an interloper into their pride and stole some food?
But then, i'd imagine the other Females would have set about her first, not four Males.

Sometimes Nature is very, very savage.

Double post... whoops, my apologies

reply to post by Briles1207


Could be hormonal. All I know is I am flabargasted. The guide in the video said he has seen this happen twice.

I am lucky enough to visit different wildlife reserves a couple of times a month for the last year plus, and I have never heard of anything like this. I have seen two lion on lion attacks, one was a kill, but it is kill and walk away. This lioness was eaten to the bone.

I have spoken to a guide (12 years) who has become a close friend of mine and he said he didn't believe it until he saw the footage. It is eating her to the bone that is totally, as they said, bizarre.

Originally posted by KaelemJames
Four male lions attack a lioness and eat her, while she is alive. I have never heard of such behavior, but apparently it does happen. Lions kill other lions for many various reasons, but this cannilbalistic act was a shock to me.

Source

In 20 years of safari guiding, I have never come across such strange behavior of male lions towards a female and despite total submission, continued to kill her in an act of cannibalism partaken by all. This was more than a territorial dispute, it was totally abnormal lion behavior.”

Video clip (Warning: Disturbing)

Video

Ok...

This clip actually got my attention as i have witnessed this before in my over 25 years experience as a vet working with not only common domestic animals but also zoo animals and semi captivated animals. (especially at Kruger national park)

There could be two reasons as to why the lions attacked the female here so i will try and keep my language as commoner gardener as possible so that everyone can understand :

Reason 1 : The Female was obviously expecting cubs, as if you look at her abdomen you will notice that she appears to be heavily pregnant... Take into consideration that Male lions in particular practice "infanticide", meaning that they will either kill the pregnat female or will kill her cubs in order to mate again and keep the bloodline continuous... (simply speaking.)

Video

or this : en.wikipedia.org...

However... reason two could be the following : i have noticed that the 4 male lions in question are very young and very inexperienced... (an adult lion who would mate is solitary and would not gang up on a female... the Lions in the video are very young and inexperienced and not at the age of sexual maturation).

SO... what i think is the following, if the female is not visibly expecting cubs then maybe she has an abdominal ailment (hence the swollen abdomen)... and as lions rely enormously on "pecking order" i have reason to believe that they are just "getting rid" of a female that is no longer able to reproduce and are profiting from the meal... (normally the female is the hunter whilst the male watches on and profits from the rest (although the solitary male will hunt too))

Kindest respects

Rodinus

reply to post by Rodinus


Star for your input

I find it strange that lionesses of that group joined in later on to "feed" on her. They do say they suspect she used to be a part of that pride and because of her not being able to reproduce, they killed her.

I still find it shocking that the pride ate her till there was only a carcass left.

We get our "evil male lions" who usually walk in pairs and kill other lions - lionesses and cubs if they run into them, but they never eat their own. Well, I thought so and I was wrong.

reply to post by wiser3


Thank you wiser3,

Looking forward to what your friend has to say!

I have never met her, but I hope I will run into her on a fine day!

Originally posted by KaelemJames
reply to post by Rodinus

 

Star for your input

I find it strange that lionesses of that group joined in later on to "feed" on her. They do say they suspect she used to be a part of that pride and because of her not being able to reproduce, they killed her.

I still find it shocking that the pride ate her till there was only a carcass left.

We get our "evil male lions" who usually walk in pairs and kill other lions - lionesses and cubs if they run into them, but they never eat their own. Well, I thought so and I was wrong.

Pecking order...

And if you can get a free meal without hunting (which is what the lionesses do too).. (don't forget that the more energy spent hunting equals less energy for the cubs)) when it is mega warm and cant be bothered and all you want to do all day is lie underneath a tree in the shade away from the hot sun and digest your meal... As cats do in general

It is not shocking... just imagine what THEY think if they saw us eating at a pizza at a table with a knife and fork...Well... the first thing that they would think is... FOOD!

Kindest respects

Rodinus

reply to post by Rodinus




They could have decided to eat her after a brawl?

IMO, they were cautious going for her jugular so decided to eat her alive.

Could it be Rabies? A few years ago in Africa there was a few lions killed by their own pride and it was found that the killed Lions had Rabies, and that the Pride were protecting themselves from the disease.

reply to post by KaelemJames


She is originally from the mother city and visits there often as her mom and sister still live in CT!

Amazing, amazing person! Was featured in many S.A. magazines during the height of her Cheetah career!


My apologies to Lise, I spelt her surname incorrectly! Lise Hanssen, The Cheetah Lady, google her, do yourself a favour!


When the 19th century saw colonisation sweep across Africa, a rapidly increasing farming community developed huge tracts of land for agriculture. The cheetah, having survived millions of years of evolution, dramatic weather changes and shifting landmasses, was suddenly proclaimed to be ‘vermin’’ and therefore deemed undesirable.

Lise Hanssen, a young, vivacious South African woman, is one of a handful of people who, realising the need for the cheetah’s protection, has dedicated her life to their welfare.

During the early 1990’s, Lise established the Namibian-based AfriCat Foundation. AfriCat’s immediate goals were to save Namibia’s large carnivores such as cheetah, leopard, lion and hyena by re-educating the commercial farming community and to provide alternatives to the killing of ‘problem animals’.


Pic of Lise working on a Hyaena she darted!




Sorry for the multiple edits!

It could be as simple as there being not enough other animals for the lions to eat...
I read that in parts of Africa,there is so little animals left,that some tribes now have to fight lions to steal their kills.
Sad state of affairs,well done China.

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


I am by no means a fan of China but you can put a huge amount of blame on the Western Nations that colonised Africa and did their utmost to wipe out the wildlife! And they are still doing it today! Trophy Tourism is rife in Africa! Families from all continents come to Africa and shoot Giraffe, Elephant, Lion you name it they shoot it, have a pretty picture taken of themselves draped over a dead animal and they're back on their bicycles to Europe to show their friends and family how wonderful they are and regale them with their their stories of how they hunted big game in Africa omitting the fact that it was from the safety of a four wheel drive vehicle with armed guards watching every move that the animals make!

Trump Jnr with his Leopard


Trump Jnr with the Tail of his elepant in his hand and the legs of the dead elephant on the ground behind him! And don't we look all brave and butch with the hunting knife?


All of this no doubt paid for with daddy Trumps money

reply to post by wiser3


Without the money from the trophy hunters there would be no wildlife parks and many species would already be extinct. I agree that trophy hunting is wrong on many levels (unless maybe you do it with only a spear) but that's how they can afford to pay gamekeepers and wildlife biologists.

As for the lions eating other lions or their young there is nothing "evil" about it. It's just the way lion society works. Brutal from our perspective but it seems to have worked for them so far.

reply to post by Asktheanimals


The nature of lions are not evil, true. But, there are lions that are known to just kill and not even eat their prey.

A male, or lioness will kill a cub/s, and true at times eat it. The purpose: "survival of the fittest". Well, lions aren't big on adoption..

I am not saying lions are evil, but in life there will be the "evil" lion, or a pair (usually male) that do just that.

Many single man-eaters are old, and deprived from food sources so they hunt man to eat. That is not evil, that's to eat, that is what lions do when there's no food.

Then you get ones like the Tsavo man-eaters. Killing, according to some estimates 135 people..??

Lions are hunters. They track, stalk, plot, and inevitably, kill. But the man eating lions of Tsavo set themselves up for infamy by exhibiting incredible amounts of intuition, cunning, and startling enough; guerrilla tactics. These lions were smart, ruthless, and methodical.

-Long after any hunger pangs would have subsided, the lions continued to seek out victim after victim, appearing to torture and then kill for pleasure.
-Not all victims were eaten; an ungodly amount of human skeletal remains were found, morbidly frozen in various states of death and decay, in the man-eater's cave.
-The lions, while together, were impossible to kill. Their combined power and intuition made them a deadly duo; while apart they were vulnerable.
-Once the first lion was dead--and that was no easy feat--it took much more firepower to down the second than should be normal to kill a lion, even of that size.
-The locals claimed that the lions moved as ghosts, without a sound, appearing and disappearing without a trace; only to be seen when they had, or were planning to, take a life.
-There remains the detail that even while dead, looking into the lion's eyes will cause feelings of intense, terrorizing fear.

Source

Another case: One lion, the Paper Lion from Tanzania, appeared to drift randomly from one victim to the next, like a "scrap of paper". Another was dubbed "Namvelieza", or "The Cunning One".

Some reported cases are:

**Lion / Pride Number of confirmed Human kills Country:
Tsavo: 28, Kenya
Namvelieza: (The cunning one) 43 ?
Chambisi: 67, Zambia
Chienge: 90, Zambia
Golis Mountains: 100, Somalia
Mporokse: Pride 1000 victims in 10 years ??
Njombe: Pride 2000 victims in 25 years Tanzania.

I will need to google each of those to get more accurate information

Bizarre indeed

Because
1) Only a new pride leader would kill the cubs of the previous leader
2) There is plenty to eat in Botswana delta region

It more reminds me of something caught on tape in Uganda, where primates excercised justice for a misdeed among themselves

This makes me wonder if the same problem seen with elephants has crossed over to the big cats...

Decades of elephant culling, and culling the physically impressive adult members of the herd, was recently identified as having a negative effect on the remaining juvenile elephants. Without the constant guidance of herd 'elders', both the matriarchs with the youngest elephants, and the mature bulls with the teenage male elephants that have left the herd, resulted in chaotic gang-like behavior on the part of the juvenile elephants. They had no moral compass and were big bullies that had very unelephant like behaviors. It caused a complete breakdown of elephant society, and a very large percentage of elephant attacks can be linked to these juvenile, leaderless gangs and the elephants raised without true elder matriarchs.

If decades of trophy hunting and pride culling of lions targeted the older and More physically impressive specimens of the pride, then it should come as no surprise that the juvenile males would run amok of standard accepted behavior. Young males leave the pride at some point to form temporary prides with other unattached males while they mature. Without guidance, or elders to model, rules of decorum are gone, and any lion, female or not, might be seen as a threat, instead of as attention mate.

reply to post by rimjaja


Scarey if you think it out to include the prospect of the long term effect of Obama care death panels*.

I see a dystopian future ala Clockwork Orange/Logans Run.


*Which in my mind are meant to kill off people as soon as they retire and stop paying taxes and start to take back some of what they have paid for (unless they are politically connected of course).