Lioness gives in to Vultures: Video
Published by Wildcaster 1 year, 11 months ago Tags: africa, animal kingdom, blogumentary, documentary, ecotraining, education, flickr, giraffe, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, hunting, lions, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open Content Alliance, pamushana, peace parks, photos, podcasting, polls, predators, teach, video, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife documentary, youtube, zimbabwe.
Having left the lions at dusk yesterday looking rather lean, they were different creatures today with stomachs distended beyond comprehension.
The Nduna pride killed a giraffe cow some time last night and between the 14 lions in the pride they had all but polished off that huge carcass by dawn when I found them. And already the vultures were waiting.
Most of the pride moved on really well fed when I arrived except for one lioness. She seemed on a mission to see if at any stage, if she kept on eating, her stomach would burst.
As the temperatures picked up she moved into the shade close to the kill. This was an invitation for the Hooded vultures to move in. Slowly one by one they moved in on the carcass, weary of the lioness.
With 3 vultures picking up scraps the lioness wasn’t keen on sharing and rushed them off. Hot and uncomfortable with a huge stomach the lioness retreated back to her shade. The vultures came down again. This time more of them. Again the lioness saw them off. This went on several times until the lioness eventually gave up with the pestering and left the area.
Realising the she was now gone the vultures literally fell from the sky to get to the carcass before the hordes. At least a 100 of them joined in on the feast.
Half an hour later there was all but nothing left. Just some skin and white bones having been stripped of everylittle scrap of meat.
Share Wildcast with the world: 
If this lioness makes a habit of hanging around and stuffing herself, you may want to enroll her in Obsessive Eaters Anonymous. I wonder if animals do have eating disorders or if it is only humans that have this problem.
Towards the end of the video the lioness was flicking her tail quite a few times in an upward motion. Was that a warning sign to the vultures to keep away?
Don’t know of any animals living naturally that enroll for OEA. But maybe male lions could. Although they do go through good and bad times. There always seems to be a balance in nature.
When lions are aggrovated by something and get aggressive they will flick their tails from side to side to show their aggression. That’s when you be sure to stay out the way! but the tail flicking upwards is not that aggressive and sometimes just chasing biting flies.
Kim,
It’s always interesting to hear your accounts of different animal behaviors.
Since the topic of discussion includes vultures,I know the lappet faced vulture is the most dominate among the vultures,,but some of my “vulture-fanatic” friends don’t agree with me that the LF Vulture is not dominate over the M Stork.
What do you think?
Also,have you seen many predators(felines/canids/anything) catch/kill any vultures while at the carcuss?
yes Lappet’s do dominate marabous. Even the white-backed’s seem to chase off marabous.
once saw a caracal catch a white-backed vulture in Etosha national park. The vultures were feeding at night, which is very unusual, when the caracal caught it.
Also in Etosha had hyaenas grab a lappet-faced vulture and play with it till it died. There was something wrong with the vulture before the hyaenas got hold of it. It was reluctant to fly off.