In a previous post, I gave a Lion Army: Battle to Survive Preview. I have actually viewed the full program now, and this is a follow-up to that original post.
There was some amazing film footage on the Lion Army National Geographic show that make it worth a view. In particular, there is a lot of night time filming including a dramatic hunting attempt of a hippo that nearly snatches the life out of one unfortunate lioness. I was also taken with a hunting attempt of a giraffe, it really illustrated just how enormous a giraffe is to see a lion running along side at only around knee level.
A wildebeest can make a fair meal for four lionesses and there is plenty of room for all. With a pride numbering in the 20’s there is fierce competition just to find a spot at the carcass and many will remain hungry.
Photo at Lebala by Bill Given.
I would have liked to see the program discuss more about pride size, the optimal size for success, how they need to adapt, etc. The dramatic footage of hunting large prey species though did illustrate well that in a large size pride they must learn to effectively take down large species or some pride members will suffer and the group may have to splinter. Normally a zebra is good size prey but for this pride, with no males present, it was likely less than ½ of what they needed for a full feeding and it was certainly a crowded dinner area. Prides do develop hunting/feeding cultures where they learn to specialize on certain species and this kind of large pride dynamic forces trial and error on large prey until they eventually become masters or the pride shrinks one way or another. The best example of this may be the Savuti pride in Botswana that once had over 30 members and they became quite skilled at killing sub-adult elephants.
As the lions learn how to kill a new food source it is often a clumsy learning experience and requires a large number of members, often including the males, to succeed in taking down a large prey animal. Over time though they become masters and then a surprisingly low number of individuals can have success so even if the pride numbers reduce the feeding culture may well be established and a smaller pride can still do well hunting megafauna prey.
While some of the footage makes this show worth watching it certainly does not approach the masterpiece films on lions made by Dereck and Beverly Joubert. In particular, they made two amazing films focusing on Botswana’s lions in the Savuti area. The classic that gets the most buzz is Eternal Enemies: Lions and Hyenas (below), it is an absolute must see and by far the best film I know of to learn about spotted hyenas. While I love that film and think it is one of the best ever made I think I like the film that preceded it, Lions of Darkness (also below) even more, definitely my favorite film on lions.
Streaming Videos of Eternal Enemies: Lions and Hyenas as well as Lions of Darkness
I have included the videos mentioned above within this blog post. You can watch them by clicking on the videos below and it will stream to your computer.
Eternal Enemies: Lions and Hyenas Video
Lions of Darkness Video
If you'd like to have the DVD / VHS of these programs, you can get them through the National Geographic store:
Eternal Enemies: Lions & Hyenas
Lions of Darkness (VHS)
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