See a Kudu Leap Over a Tourist’s Car Like He’s Doing Parkour

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There are many obstacles that prey must encounter in the open plains of Africa. We typically think of these obstacles as being large predators, trees, and rivers. However, sometimes, safari vehicles are in the way. Let’s see how this large kudu navigates this car, being in the way in the video above.

Kudu Sighting in Kruger National Park 

The YouTube video at the top of this blog post takes us to the Kruger National Park in South Africa. The Latest Sightings YouTube page shared this video, which has received over three million views. Their latest sightings have been of chameleons, baboons, lions, crocodiles, giraffes, and vultures. 

Kudu Jumping Over Six Feet

The start of this video shown above shows a group of tourists driving along a safari tour. In addition to being able to take guided tours in the Kruger National Park, there are also self-drive tours where you can drive yourself. 

These cars stop to capture footage of wildlife roaming by their cars. Suddenly, these tourists see a wild lion chase taking place. A pride of lions is hunting a massive kudu. And to get this animal down, they will need their entire pride of lions. 

The lions chase this mammal straight into the roadway, where the vehicles are all stopped. Perhaps these lions thought this was the perfect opportunity to corner their prey from having no possibility of escape. However, this kudu doesn’t know the word “impossible.”

Without skipping a beat, the kudu leaps into the roadway and jumps over the car! If you stop the video at eight seconds, you can see an amazingly clear view of this animal stopping in the dirt, leaping over the car, and then landing far on the next side of the road. So, in essence, he jumped over not only the vehicle but the entire roadway as well!

How High Can Kudu’s Jump?

Kudu’s (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) of the family Bovidae can weigh upwards of 600 pounds with enormous horns on their heads that can reach up to six feet in length. 

Despite being so large, the San Francisco Zoo reports that they can easily leap over eight feet! 

An average car, like the one this kudu jumped over, can be 4-6 feet tall. So, even though this impressed us, this mammal still had a few more feet up he could have gone had he needed to!

Their ability to jump so well also can come from their ability to run up to incredible speeds of 60 miles per hour. Which, in this case, definitely was helping this kudu escape these pride of lions!