Surrounded by 11 hyenas and forced to flee, the white lion had no choice but to escape to safety.
The intense confrontation between a rare white lion and a pack of hyenas was captured in South Africa’s Kruger National Park.
The lion had just killed an antelope when a pack of hyenas appeared, surrounding the predator to steal its prey.
The pack of hyenas surrounds to steal the white lion’s prey.
Guide Joe Van Zyl, who recorded the footage, stated that he was on his way to a familiar waterhole when he unexpectedly encountered a white female lion just finishing her meal of an antelope.
After about 5 minutes, two hyenas rushed in from a distance, continuously calling out to attract the attention of their pack. Soon after, a total of 11 hyenas arrived, vastly outnumbering the solitary lioness. Under attack, the lioness found no escape route and decided to hunker down.
The situation escalated when several hyenas closed in, biting at the lioness’s hind legs, leaving her with no choice but to flee to safety.
White lions are extremely rare in the wild and are not a separate species. They actually belong to a leucistic group, meaning they carry a recessive gene mutation that lightens their fur color. For a lion to be born white, both parents must carry the recessive gene. Unlike albino lions, white lions usually retain some darker coloration in areas such as around the eyes and nose.
Their bright coloration makes them stand out significantly compared to typical lions, which have tawny coats that easily blend into the African savannah. However, it is unclear whether this actually makes it more difficult for white lions to survive.
“As a scientist, I cannot say there is specific evidence,” Paul Funston, senior lion program director at Panthera, told National Geographic.
We are merely speculating, but in this case, the bright white fur of the lioness did not help her stand out or escape the attention of the hyena pack.
