Watch a Lion Pride Try to Take Down a Meal in the Dead of Night

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Typically, when we think of a hunt, we imagine it being during the middle of the day. Where there is plenty of light and opportunity to hide, chase, and kill. However, sometimes, animals will hunt in the dead of night to use the darkness as a disguise. Don’t miss this late-night hunt in the video posted above. 

Lion Pride Sighting in Zimbabwe 

The short YouTube clip at the top of this blog post takes us to Zimbabwe in South Africa. The Snakes in Zimbabwe YouTube page shared this video on their channel. Their newest videos have been of elephants, birds, deer, and nyalas. They were lucky to get this amazing footage of a lion pride fighting at night!

Lion Pride Hunting At Night

At the start of this YouTube video, we see that this sighting is late at night. The YouTube page commented that this “lion pride took advantage of the darkness and killed,” and we couldn’t agree with them more. 

This pride didn’t just use darkness without a thought. They knew that, much like during the day, their brown fur helped them to hide easily in the grass; the darkness was a perfect cover for their prowling to find the ideal prey. 

According to the African Lion & Environmental Research Trust, “Some of the types of prey they catch include birds, hares, turtles, mice, lizards, wild hogs, wild dogs, antelopes, cheetahs, buffaloes, leopards, crocodiles, baby elephants, rhinoceros, hippopotamuses, and even tall giraffes!” The prey they decided on looked to be a small goat or antelope. 

This kill isn’t dead yet; they have surrounded it, and we see them all taking turns licking it. It’s almost as if they are savoring this meal before they kill and devour it. The animal starts to get up and try to leave, but they grab it and go for the kill. 

How Do Lions Kill?

Lions are large beasts, the king of the jungle, that weigh up to 550 pounds and can reach over eight feet long. In addition, they have inch-and-a-half long claws, a fierce weapon these lions can whip out. They also have an incredible bite force of up to 1,000 PSI (pounds per square inch.) All of this combined makes them the perfect killing machine. 

When lions are ready to kill, they are the perfect hunters who use their numbers to their advantage. When they go in to kill, lions will go for the throat. According to the University of Minnesota, “If the prey is captured, the lion bites at the muzzle or throat to throttle it.” As we can see from the video at the top, these lions went in for the throat and successfully subdued their prey.