NUS Module Blogs

Dramatic footage of seven lions attacking an elephant.

"Lions and elephants generally keep their distance from each other. But in the dry season, roughly April through October, water becomes more vital than caution, and a water hole can bring even wary adversaries into close quarters. The elephants at this water hole—by October only four inches (10 centimeters) deep and the diameter of a dining room table—squeeze other animals out, and the lions respond accordingly, eventually coming to rely on elephants for more than half their food. The first kill we saw was a six-year-old calf. With each kill the lions got bolder, attacking older calves, engaging in frontal attacks within the herd, chasing off six-ton females to get to their young. Finally, they even started attacking adults—a shocking sight never before photographed."

- National Geographic Magazine. This clip is from an article/documentary ("Preying on Giants") by the famous couple Derek and Beverly Jourbert who have spent decades in Africa filming large mammals acclimatised to their presence and soft lights. Most of us older naturalists, at least, appear to have been brought up on a diet of National Geographic magazines and films and David Attenborough documentaries. Hence the many references I highlight, which you all don;t seem to have seen. I'll se waht I can do to highlight a critical subset. Derek and Beverly Joubert were actually in Singapore in the late 90's at the old National Library. I told them I was using their "Lions of Darkness" video in class and they were very happy. Otherwise they said, they were miserable, because they were used to the African bush and the city was stressful!