This Male Lion Passes Up a Herd of Antelope To Attack a Lion Cub

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Just when you think you might know an animal, they surprise you. And the king of the jungle is no different. This predator can have a temper unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Have you ever met someone who just gets angry for no reason? Well, that is the best way to describe this lion in the video above. 

Antelope Herd Grazing Gets Spooked by King of the Jungle

The short YouTube clip shown at the top of this blog post takes us to Africa. This is where an antelope herd that is grazing gets frightened when they see a massive male lion chasing them. The Travel Itinerary By Niji is a YouTube channel that specializes in offering content from all over the world, such as Africa, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, and Bali to list a few. 

Male Lion Charges At Lion Cub

As the video above starts out, we see a herd of antelope grazing for food just up ahead. A male lion is seen slowly walking forward, almost as if he is headed straight for this antelope herd. And we can see how intent these antelope were to see what this lion would do next. 

A mother lioness enters the frame and she is holding a lion cub in her mouth. According to the National Library of Medicine, “In many mammalian species with altricial young, the mother carries her offspring by mouth to transport them for various reasons, such as to conceal them while she forages for food, or to move nests, or away from danger.” 

As she’s carrying her young, the male lion suddenly charges for no reason at all. The antelope take off at incredible speeds, trying to get away from the predator hunting them. Only this lion isn’t lunging at them. He is going straight for the lion cub! The mother quickly realizes it and starts to defend her cub and fight the male lion as best she can. 

Why Do Lions Kill Cubs?

Anytime we hear of young animals being killed, it breaks our hearts because the innocent young ones don’t have any way to defend themselves. However, this is a necessary part of the way of life in the wild. 

The killing of a young animal is known as “infanticide,” which is where an adult animal will kill a young animal. Male lions, when entering a new pride will often kill the cubs because they aren’t biologically related to the male taking over. The Scientific American Journal states that “Killing cubs accelerates the onset of oestrus in pride females, and so is likely to increase the reproductive success of incoming males.” 

However, this does not seem to be the case in the video above. As always, there’s no telling what animals might do and how they might surprise us. And here it seems this grumpy lion was having a bad day.