Relentless Enemies Page #3

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are ready and waiting.

In a sophisticated and well-honed tactic

of herding the buffalo,

they first panic them with

a strange, growling charge.

The object is not to attack,

but to stampede the herd into the water.

Only then do they pick off

the struggling young

as they flounder out of their depth.

It is Silver Eye who makes the first contact,

dragging her prey underwater

to deliver mortal wounds

before the mother can retaliate

and rescue her calf.

Then the hunt goes into phase two.

Now, like sheepdogs,

the lions herd the buffalo together,

relentlessly pushing in.

It is clinical, this constant probing

for weakness,

the following through the flood waters

for up to seven hours at a time.

The lone female hangs back for a moment,

but the cub is eager to join in

despite his instinctive fear of water.

Water is an element that all Tsaro lions

must conquer early to become what they are,

true swamp cats.

And then, the stabbing attacks begin.

Each attack weakens the spirit of the herd.

This is the hunt they were born to.

And this is when the blood races,

adrenaline coursing through their muscles,

throbbing in their heads.

The young are jostled between

anxious mothers and defensive bulls,

and this is what the lions

have been waiting for, mistakes,

that given time and constant pressure,

are bound to happen.

And this is what the masters

have been waiting for.

Each kill is eagerly observed from a distance.

Ready to add more battle scars

to his profile if need be,

he is here to claim his bounty.

The lionesses have come to accept

this unchivalrous behavior.

It is their sacrifice for the protection

that the males give to the pride.

And knowing that the buffalo

are about to escape across the river,

they continue the hunt.

The females that have run and hunted hard

will need the next kill to be theirs.

This kill must be large enough to both feed

those that stayed back protecting the cub,

and sustain the lionesses

that have been injured in this last attack.

For the females,

the next hunt had better succeed.

The buffalo on this island have developed

an unusual tactic for defense.

It seems to baffle the lions.

Under threat, they present

an impenetrable wall of horns

by simply dropping down to sleep.

There are just a handful of hyenas

on the island.

When a new mother tries to move her cubs

out of the way of the herd,

she is well aware that she is being watched

from both sides.

She doesn't want to be caught

in the middle of this battle.

The unruly cubs had better head for cover.

Lions will hunt down and kill hyenas

even though they don't eat them.

But these lions are focused on killing

something edible,

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