Witness a Baby Giraffe Turn Into a Karate Champion and Kick a Lion Twice In the Air

Continue reading for our analysis...

Key Points:

• As the video starts, one wonders why the lion on the road is not attacking the giraffe on the road. The reason soon becomes apparent that he is after the easier prey of a baby giraffe.
• The baby giraffe appears, hotly pursued by another lion who drives the baby into the attack of the waiting lion.
• The baby may be young, but it has good instincts or good training in defense because it forcefully kicks the lion away and runs off with its mother. Will the other lion pursue it?

The Story Seen in the Video

Fights in the wild are often fair. We will see a lion attack a gazelle and rip it apart. A crocodile grabs a wildebeest wading through the water. Or a snow leopard attacking a mountain goat. In these instances, the predator far outweighs its prey. In the video posted below, however, a baby giraffe defies all odds!

At the start of this video, two tour guides lead a group of people through the Kapama Private Game Reserve, located in South Africa. They have stopped in the middle of the road because a lion is suspiciously looking through the brushes to their left, almost as if he knows what lies beyond them. 

Not only is the lion there, but up the road, there is an adult female giraffe that is literally standing in the middle of the road, taking up the whole path due to its size. Even though this giraffe stands almost 10 times taller than the lion, she is no match for the lion’s strength and brute force. 

Something seems off as neither the lion nor the giraffe is looking at each other. They both are looking off to the side beyond the bushes. And rightly so, because beyond those bushes, there is a wild chase and hunt going on. The lion’s friend is off chasing a baby giraffe, called a calf, and he is out by the roadway to engage in the hunt once the baby giraffe is cornered his way.

Suddenly, the giraffe is rushing through the bushes into the road, with the lion close on his heels. The lion in the roadway jumps into action and comes to cut the baby giraffe off. Just as the baby giraffe reaches the road, he comes crashing into the lion and kicks it so hard it flings the full-grown lion off the road. 

How Strong is a Giraffe’s Kick?

Giraffes are obviously known for their enormous height, which reaches up to 20 feet. What they are also known for are their long, dangly legs. While these legs may look “dainty,” they are anything but.

A giraffe’s kick can contain the power of 2,000 PSI, meaning that its force of impact is 2,000 pounds of force per square inch. While a giraffe could not withstand the force of a lion bite and certainly not that of a hunt from a pack, giraffes have been known to actually kill lions by merely kicking. 

Is It Normal Behavior For Lions to Hunt in Pairs?

Yes! Unlike other felines, lions are not solitary hunters. Instead, the lionesses work together in order to chase down and catch their prey with each female having a different strategic role. This strategy allows them to kill animals that are both faster and larger than they are. In this manner, their hunting forays are much more successful.

While most big cats are solitary hunters, lions are incredibly sociable animals that live together in family groups called prides, which generally consist of 80% females. Despite their enormous size, male lions actually do hardly any of the hunting as they are often slower and more easily seen than their female counterparts.

The lion is one of the largest, strongest, and most powerful felines in the world, second only in size to the Siberian Tiger. They are the largest cats on the African continent.

A lion’s diet consists of buffalo, wildebeests, and giraffes. Depending on the abundance and variety of prey species within their territory, lions also catch gazelle, zebra, and warthog along with a number of antelope species by following the herds across the open grasslands.