Solomzi Radebe captured an incredibly rare sight while on a drive in the Pilanesberg. A hippo tried to steal a pride of lions dinner.
Solomzi Radebe is a field guide in the Pilanesberg. During one of his most recent drives, he spotted something truly spectacular. A pride of lions were eating their latest kill, close to a watering hole. Solomzi stopped to film the moment and what happened next would have been unbelievable if it wasn’t caught on camera.
“We were enjoying the sighting and I started to see a hippo bull come out of the water and advance slowly over towards the kill. In my mind, I thought he was just curious as to what was happening and that he might just chase those lions away.”
“The male hippo advanced slowly towards the lions, followed by two females. His mouth was open wide trying to intimidate the pride. The male lions were not too worried about the hippo but the lionesses and cubs were uncomfortable with his presence and kept a distance from this massive beast.
The male lions stood their ground, but I was wary of the situation not knowing what might happen. Obviously because they were hungry they were not eager to leave the carcass. Everyone knows that hippos have a main diet of mostly grass, although I’ve seen them some years back, hippos chewing on a waterbuck carcass.”
A standoff between the hippo bull and the lions ensued, neither willing to step down.
“I could hardly believe my eyes when this hippo invaded the pride’s meal. I applauded him for his tenacity as he didn’t budge an inch and was not intimidated by them at all. In fact, it was as if they were all smoking a peace pipe and having a great lunch together. I realized then that this sighting was not just rare but pure gold as lions on a kill wouldn’t ever allow other animals to come closer than 70m.
I was so excited that my throat went completely dry and I broke out in goosebumps. I couldn’t even keep my camera still and I said to myself that this must be that one of a kind sighting I couldn’t wait to share with the world!”
We couldn’t believe what we were seeing in the video, as Solomzi said, this sighting is pure gold. Solomzi drove back later to see if anything had changed but both dinner parties had gone their own way. He checked with all the people back at the base and nobody could confirm ever seeing anything like this.
Solomzi felt incredibly fortunate to witness such an incredible sight and we are eternally grateful that he managed to film it all. Take a look at the video below.
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