It’s normally the lion that is at the top of the food chain.
But for one tragic lioness her last chance at survival slipped through her claws and almost ended up killing her in the process.
Her final few days were captured on film at Kruger National Park in South Africa, showing her clearly emaciated and lying exhausted on the floor before a buffalo flips and launches her into the air.
Lions are the only type of wild big cats to live in prides. Other big cats live solitary lives except when they are breeding or raising their young.
For this lonesome female, her solace could be explained by another male lion taking over her pride and forcing her out.
It is uncommon to see a lone female as they usually stay in their pride for their entire lives raising their young within the group.
Field guide Bathabile Shakwane, 22, noticed this buffalo separated from the herd and staring at something in the undergrowth. The Lioness can just been seen sleeping on the ground
Without warning, the buffalo charges at the injured big cat, crushing her into the ground in an attempt to protect his herd from the predator
Without the safety and security of her pride, she has been unable to hunt and feed herself and is starving and injured.
Bathabile Shakwane, a 22-year-old field guide, explained to Latestsightings.com: “We were just leisurely driving down from Satara towards Skukuza on a relatively hot day. We were rewarded with lots of buffalo sightings.
‘We stopped in at Kumana dam and happened to notice a lone lioness lying in the bushes nearby a herd of buffalo.
The vulnerable cat is thrown into the air by the bovine as she is violently awoken
Unable to fight back, the poor lion is pitifully tossed in the air where she dangles helplessly before crashing to the ground
Happy with its days work of defending its herd, the buffalo runs away from the weakened big cat who does not have the strength to fight back
‘A single buffalo bull seemed to notice the lioness lying in the bushes and decided to tread carefully towards the lioness to see what she was up to.
‘At that point, the buffalo got a bit too close for comfort and the lioness got a fright and tried to flee the situation.
‘Once she got up, we noticed how terribly thin and weak she was looking and then I realised that this meal was a matter of life and death for her.
The visibly shaken cat turns and makes a break for it, but the field expert estimates that she would perished later that day from starvation and exhaustion
‘Unfortunately, in the condition she was in there was no chance she would be able to take down a healthy buffalo of that size on her own.
‘The buffalo realised her vulnerable state and flung her up into the air like a ragdoll.
‘She managed to get away from the buffalo unscathed. It was clear, though, that lioness was not going to live much longer on her own and I can only imagine she would have died of hunger at the end of the day.
‘The video is kind of tragic but just that scene was beyond amazing for me because you don’t get to see this every day.”
The field guide suggests that in the condition the feline was in there was no chance she would of been able to take down a healthy buffalo
The buffalo bull realised this and took advantage of the cat’s poor health and attacked