The Trick and the Dead.

People think only lionesses hunt but nothing could be further from the truth.  Male lions are very effective hunters and very very strong. They can bring down a rhino as I have written about and its not just brute strength though they are immensely strong as well.

I was watching a pair of male lions tag teaming herds of impala in Kruger and it was really cool to see how they were doing it. Two males were chilling under a few bushes about 30 yards from a water hole and the impala were coming in to drink in small herds of 20-30 impala. This went on for a little while and I noticed that though the lions were in the shade and off to one side they were watching the impala very closely. 30-40 meters is not enough distance to run down an impala across the open area of a few acres. They would take off pretty quick and impala are fast.

So the one lion crouches even lower while the other one gets up and walks full in the open across the eastern end of the waterhole and stations himself in full sight under a tree in the shade about 50 meters south east of the waterhole. The other lion was ensuring he did not move a muscle while his buddy took all the looks. He would even periodically move, get up walk around a few steps this way and that. The first couple groups of impala knew there were two lions and in the same place. In 20 minutes the new groups were focusing on the one lion visible out in the open and they never saw or appeared to not see the other one.

They kept their eyes glued to the one lion in the open while just past them there was another lion in hiding.

It was a recipe for lunch for the lions. One distracts and the other ambushes. Too bad I did not get to see the action cuz I had to drive my guests back to camp but getting pix of the impala looking the wrong way with the lion in the background was awesome.

Also missed getting a wide angle shot of both lions and just got the one. But you see the story.