Lion | February 11, 2024 11:27 AM | Alisa

A gang of hyenas surrounds a lion cub, who calls his mother for help

Watch as a lion cub faces a gang of hungry hyenas, only to be saved by its mother’s quick thinking. This mother lioness was forced to gift her meal to a clan of hungry hyenas to save her cub from a definite death. Benji Solms, a guide at Serondella, saw this exciting and nail-biting sighting.

It all started off with two leopards that were feeding on an impala carcass they had just recently caught. The two cats were unfortunately forced to leave their meal when a mother lioness and her cubs arrived.

The leopards had taken the impala into a tree that they thought would be out of reach of any other predator. They were wrong, as the mother lioness and her cubs were able to easily jump up the base of the tree and get to the carcass that was resting at the fork of the tree.

As the saying goes, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. In Africa, we say where there’s meat, there’s hyenas. A clan of hungry hyenas were the first to arrive on the scene after the lions had successfully stolen the leopard’s lunch. But, unlike big cats, hyenas struggle to climb anything and can’t get anywhere near the kill. The hungry hyenas were left with nothing but the smell of the fresh meat and their hopes that the lion would accidentally drop it.

The mother lioness didn’t seem bothered at all by their presence, but the same cannot be said about her cubs. Their inexperience made them doubtful; their hearts were racing at the presence of so many hyenas! Surely, they thought it was only a matter of time until the hyenas got to them.

As the hyenas started to spread out, one of the cubs saw what he thought to be the perfect escape opportunity. He leaped down from the tree, thinking he could make a run for it. But as soon as his little paws hit the ground, the entire clan of hyenas surrounded him! Jaws snapping and ready, the hyenas meant business!

The cub was fear-stricken; it froze. The whooping sounds of the hyenas, accompanied by their very scary sight, made him shiver in his skin. He realized that he had made a life-threatening mistake! But just when he thought it was all over, his mother came to the rescue. She dropped the carcass between him and the hungry hyenas. Then she jumped down from the tree, landing right in front of the hyenas. She gave them a stare of death and stood firm!

It worked, and the hyenas instantly turned their attention from the helpless cub to the meat in front of them. They each grabbed onto the carcass and scurried off into the bush away from the angry mother lioness. The cub was safe, and it was all thanks to the fast thinking of his mom.