Knocked down by his pride, this starving lion is forced to confront a fully grown buffalo in a desperate attempt to survive.
What followed was a brutal battle that lasted for hours, leaving both animals bleeding, exhausted, and mortally wounded.
Dramatic images capture a lion savagely biting and scratching a buffalo’s mouth, the big cat’s face smeared with blood from where it was bitten by the horns of a larger and heavier opponent.
A male lion is thrown into the air after attacking a lone female buffalo in South Luangwa National Park in Zambia.
The cat was flung into the air as it tried to mount its opponent and was eventually finished off when another buffalo arrived on the scene to deliver a fatal blow.
The cat is a six-year-old lion who suffers from scabies, a skin disease, and has become detached from his pride.
The lion had camped next to a watering hole in the hopes of attacking unsuspecting buffaloes.
The buffalo tried to knock the lion away but instead of trying to run away, the buffalo just stood there.
Both animals stared at each other, both too exhausted to move.
After a few minutes of rest, the lion moved on to the buffalo, and another ten-minute battle ensued. Once again the buffalo tried to shake itself free.
Both animals in battle vests appeared to have no energy left after fighting for an hour in a national park in Zambia.
The lion bit his claws into the buffalo’s face as he tried to pull the animal down to deliver a killer blow.
The same process continued for about an hour until both animals were completely normal.
The rest of the herd who had come to drink were watching from afar as the battle continued.
Seemingly lucky in favor of the exhausted but ferocious lion, a member of the buffalo herd came to his aid and dealt a fatal blow.
That seems to give the cow the chance it needs to escape and move along with the rest of the herd.
The lion stuck his teeth into the buffalo’s mouth – but the attack wasn’t enough to bring down the much larger animal.
Then the lion tried to get into the bushes to lick the wound. In the end, both animals were covered in blood.
Two days later, the lion struggled with its wounds, while the buffalo’s carcass was found two weeks later, unable to fight the infection. As the lion prepared to rise, more buffaloes arrived. with another animal dealing a fatal blow to the cat
Spilling blood from the place where the buffalo horns had killed him, the male lion collapsed on the dusty ground. Both animals died from the collision. The lion succumbed to the wound two days later while the buffalo died later from the infection.
