p.1 #1 · A Lion cub runs for it's life pursued by a large Croc!
* Warning: The last 2 images in this sequence are confronting. (ZERO blood)
Have just returned from a 3 week trip to Zambia's South Luangwa Nat Park and witnessed a once in a lifetime sighting.
A 5mth old male Lion cub runs the brave gauntlet of 5 separate big Croc's before being taken by the 6th in a once in a lifetime dramatic & tragic sighting!
Earlier the Nsefu pride had crossed the Luangwa River to find that 6 had got caught by the flow and trapped on the very high riverbank,
with 4 adults scrambling to safety which left 2 cubs to the fate of these ancient predators!
I've witnessed Lions being taken by Crocs before whilst both were in the water culminating in just a giant splash, but this encounter was completely different.
Watching this play out from the opposite side of the river, my guide and I felt helpless as we witnessed this powerful and unforgettable scene.
This is the 5th and penultimate attack,
watched on helplessly by a mother who had already suffered a very bad Croc attack (evidenced by an open lower chest wound) just 40 mins earlier and was fortunate to scramble up the bank to safety.
The 2nd and older cub continuously struggled all day to climb the steep sided and crumbling riverbank, watched on helplessly by it's mother and the rest of his Nsefu Pride. This was also very tough to watch!
My guide Amon and I stayed the entire day and well after sunset and believed he succumbed to some very large Crocs during the night as we could not find him next morning and was not seen back with his pride a week later.
I have all this drama captured in 4K 120p (yet to edit) with the Hippo's also playing their role by constantly charging and harassing this young male in an attempt to "escort" him out of their river!
This brave little male finally succumbed to the biggest Croc on this stretch of the river and once again his helpless mother
tracked his fate all the way............Crocodiles are such cold, silent and ruthless killers!
p.1 #5 · A Lion cub runs for it's life pursued by a large Croc!
Amazing sequence, especially with the family watching from above!
That's hard to see... but I guess it's rough competing for the top of the food chain. That cub would have grown up to eat a many antelope or whatever itself. Knowing that doesn't really make it any easier to watch though for animal lovers... poor kitty!
p.1 #8 · A Lion cub runs for it's life pursued by a large Croc!
For those who might be interested,
I've put my finished video on my YT channel.
*Please excuse some jumpy initial video @ 35s, I'm shooting stills on my Z9 & Z400TC whilst my guide was shooting the video, at one critical stage he accidentally turned OFF the video, thinking it wasn't ON!
So I had to improvise by inserting a 20fps image sequence/still frames cropped into the 16:9 video to complete the story.
Considering he'd never shot video with a (relatively) large lens and pro body he did quite well. He's now well aware just what that big RED border means whist recording.
