Gujarat: When lion ran for life seeing a buffalo!

AHMEDABAD: A video of a sub-adult lion running away, his tail firmly between his legs, on being chased by a buffalo has gone viral. Interestingly, the lion gets into the flight mode after first posturing to be in the attack mode!

The video, which was shot by a local tourist in Sasan Gir sanctuary, dates back to 2016. The video, which comes months after the video of a lion jumping up trying to catch a chicken offered for food by locals, has once again triggered debate if the behaviour of lions is changing and becoming more docile and domiciled!

TOI tracked down the driver of the jeep commuting the tourists, Atul Solanki who said that he was ferrying tourists in his jeep and had a disappointing trip.

"We could not spot a single lion and were returning back from the sanctuary. Suddenly, we stumbled upon two lionesses in the bushes. Two other tourist vehicles had also stopped for lion spotting." said Solanki.

Then, says the driver, a sub-adult lioness started approaching the jeep and on seeing a herd of buffalo, stopped.

"He got into the attack mode and postured for that when suddenly a buffalo chased him instead and he scooted for life," recalls Solanki.

The tail end of the video shows the buffalo chasing the lion, a beat guard and a cowherd.

The driver says that what the video does not show is the lion getting distracted by beat guard arriving on a bike.

HS Singh, lion expert and member of the National Board for Wildlife, says this video shows a natural behaviour as it is a sub-adult cub and buffalo would be huge in size. "We have seen several such videos of lions being attacked by buffaloes in jungles of Africa."