Lions are superior hunters – their vision is six times more sensitive to light than humans, which already gives them a greater advantage when hunting during the day, and especially at night.
They also have an excellent sense of smell, to help them detect prey and sniff out other prides in the area. A lioness in the Kruger National Park showed exactly how brilliant her senses are when she detected and tracked a pack of wild dogs from over four kilometres away.
The compelling sighting was captured on video by Ricardo de Fonseca, a 28-year-old accountant, during a self-drive near Renosterkoppies on the S114, Kruger National Park.
De Fonseca told Latest Sightings that he had seen a pride of lions on the S22 earlier that morning, and he’d also spotted a pack of wild dogs on the S114. He watched the lioness move toward the S114 but wasn’t sure what she was tracking.
“At that stage, I knew the lioness was onto the wild dogs. I made a quick dash back to the wild dogs who were about 4km away from where I initially spotted the lioness,” he said.
De Fonseca waited patiently behind the pack of wild dogs for the lioness to approach, and he wasn’t disappointed when a few minutes later he saw her approaching them in the distance.
“I knew I was in for some action! As she approached closer, the wild dogs were unaware of her presence. Luckily for the wild dogs, she came charging in from quite a distance away which alerted the wild dogs. They all scattered and got away unscathed.”
It was their lucky day though, and they managed to scatter in time. She tried following them but eventually surrendered and moved on.
ALSO READ: Kruger lions clearly no match for tiny turtle power
