In life, unfortunately, there’s almost always a pecking order.
Humans usually realise it when they go to school as the smallest and youngest, and have to bide their time before becoming the biggest and oldest.
Animals, on the other hand, are born with instinct, and in the wild, they know who their predators are and they know which animals they can prey upon.
Every now and again however, there are a few brave individuals who break away from the pack and are unafraid of standing up to those who, on the surface, they shouldn’t be standing up to.
Like this guy:
As the lion stalks the buffalo, expecting some easy pickings from such a big herd, one courageous buffalo turns and charges.
Evidently fed up of the lion’s moves, the buffalo runs straight at it, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid style, right at the predator for the good of the herd.
Caught on camera in Kruger National Park, South Africa, the person who filmed the scene said:
Out of nowhere, two lionesses suddenly appeared and all their focus and attention was locked on this herd of buffalo.
The lionesses then used the tactic of running straight at the herd in broad daylight to create panic and pandemonium.
However the lion’s tactics didn’t quite pan out the way they thought they would, as, without hesitation, the buffalo turns and charges back, panicking the lion and chasing it away for over 100 metres.
Clearly out of breath after the chase, the lion seems happy to call it a day as the buffalo walks off, pretty chuffed with its heroic effort.
Elsewhere in South Africa, this time at the Sibuya Game Reserve, Kenton-on-Sea in Eastern Province, a pride of lions turned from their usual prey to attack and kill three poachers, who’d broken into the reserve to hunt rhinos.
Earlier this year, staff at the park found hunting rifles with silencers, wire cutters and an axe used to cut rhino horns at the bloody scene.
Owner Nick Fox, 60, said in a press release on Facebook:
We found enough body parts and three pairs of empty shoes which suggest to us that the lions ate at least three of them but it is thick bush and there could be more.
They came heavily armed with hunting rifles and axes which we have recovered and enough food to last them for several days so we suspect they were after all of our rhinos here. But the lions are our watchers and guardians and they picked the wrong pride and became a meal.
Whilst we are saddened at any loss of life the poachers came here to kill our animals and this sends out a very clear message to any other poachers that you will not always be the winner. [sic]
The bodily remains were discovered during sunset on July 3. Staff had to wait until daylight the following day to safely check the area and salvage what they could.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.