Watch a Squawking Bird Fight for Its Life When a Pack of Hungry Lions Attack

When an animal kills another in the wild and eats it, we understand it’s nature taking its course. However, sometimes, wild animals kill for sport or entertainment. In the video at the bottom of this page, a lioness takes out a cormorant only to walk away from its lifeless body a few seconds later.

What Are Cormorants?

Cormorants are birds known for their ability to take deep dives (as much as 150 feet underwater!). They have webbed feet that they use to travel in water with ease and they use their wings as rudders. Not only do they nest together, but they also tend to hunt together in the wild. They may live long enough to reach their twenties, but they do fall prey to several other predatory birds like crows and eagles. On the ground, foxes may get a hold of them as prey.

Do Lions Eat Cormorants?

Lions typically sustain themselves with large prey like wildebeest and zebras in the wild. Some of the smaller prey they seek out include rodents and reptiles. This is their nature in the wild but in captivity, they are fed by humans. These are carnivores so they need plenty of meat to sustain them. They have adapted, in some cases, to eat cormorants. However, this isn’t the most nutrient-dense food source for them.  

Cormorant Stands No Chance

The video below was captured at the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam. It starts with a view of murky, green water and a cormorant that doesn’t look too good floating atop it. Its right wing looks out of place as if it’s already injured. It floats on over to the sandy, manmade shoreline. The camera pans to the right and there are two lionesses fixated on it. The one closest to it is crouched all the way down, its back paws tucked under in a ready-to-pounce position.

The second lioness has her back paws in the same position, but she appears more relaxed with her front paws stretched out in front of her. The camera pans a little further to the right and a lion comes into view. The cormorant keeps getting closer and closer, gliding along the sludge in the water. The first lion gets up and walks on over once the cormorant gets a paw’s length away.

The cormorant immediately reacts and starts squawking, stretching its other wing and trying to flap its body away. The lion paws at it a few times and the lion, as if in defense of the bird, gets riled up. The second lioness stops him from getting closer. By this point, the first lioness has pulled it to shore and chomped on it a bit. The cormorant doesn’t go without a fight and manages to poke both lionesses in the face before finally succumbing to its final fate.