Do Buffalo Fight Lions? How Cape Buffalo Defend the Herd

Why lions hunt such dangerous prey

For a lion pride, a buffalo is a huge prize. An adult African buffalo can weigh 500–900 kg (1,100–1,980 lb), several times the weight of a single lion, so one kill can feed a whole pride for days. Buffalo also live in large herds that stay in the same area all year, close to water, which makes them a reliable food source where other prey migrates away.

In parts of southern and eastern Africa, including Kruger National Park, the Serengeti and the Okavango Delta, buffalo make up a large share of what lions eat. In other areas, lions focus on wildebeest, zebras and antelopes and take buffalo less often. Read more about the lion and its diet in What do lions eat?.

How lions hunt buffalo

Lions rarely take on a healthy, fully grown bull if they can avoid it. They prefer calves, young animals, old or sick buffalo, and animals that have strayed from the herd. Old bulls that live alone or in small bachelor groups, away from the protection of the main herd, are particularly vulnerable.

A typical hunt begins with a stalk through tall grass or bush, followed by a rush that splits the herd. Once one buffalo is separated, several lions attack it together: some grab the hindquarters and back to pull it down, while another clamps the muzzle or throat to suffocate it. Because a buffalo is so strong, these struggles can last a long time, and many attempts fail.

Male lions, which can weigh 150–250 kg (330–550 lb), are often involved in killing adult buffalo, and in some areas groups of males hunt buffalo on their own. The extra weight helps them hold and drag down such a powerful animal.

How buffalo defend themselves and the herd

Buffalo do not simply run. Their defenses include:

• Bunching. When lions are nearby, a herd closes ranks with calves in the middle, which makes it hard for lions to single out a victim.
• Facing the threat. Adults turn to face lions with heads lowered, horns ready. A lone buffalo will often back into a thicket so lions cannot reach its rear.
• Mobbing. Groups of buffalo, sometimes led by bulls, charge lions that are watching the herd or feeding on a kill, chasing them away and occasionally treeing them.
• Rescue. A captured buffalo bellows in distress, and other buffalo may race in and attack the lions. Calves have survived being caught by lions because the herd came back for them.

Buffalo use their horns to hook and toss attackers and their hooves to trample. A lion caught by a determined charge can suffer broken ribs, deep wounds or fatal injuries.

Do buffalo really kill lions?

They do, and not rarely. Lions that hunt buffalo regularly carry scars from horns, and gorings and tramplings are a recognized cause of death among adult lions in buffalo-rich areas. Injured lions often cannot hunt properly afterward, which can lead to starvation. Even lions that are not hurt pay a price in energy, because a long fight with a buffalo is exhausting.

This danger shapes lion behavior. Prides that specialize in buffalo tend to be large and experienced, and individual lions learn which buffalo are weak enough to attack. Young or inexperienced lions are most at risk of being injured or killed.

Famous filmed encounters

The best-known example is “Battle at Kruger,” an eight-minute amateur video shot in September 2004 at a waterhole in Kruger National Park, South Africa. It shows young lions catching a buffalo calf, a short tug of war with two Nile crocodiles, and then the buffalo herd returning to scatter the lions and free the calf, which walks back into the herd. Posted on YouTube in 2007, it became one of the most-watched wildlife videos online, with tens of millions of views. Experts interviewed at the time said that mobbing to rescue a calf is normal buffalo behavior, but that capturing it on film was very lucky.

Wildlife filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert spent years following lions that hunt buffalo at Duba Plains in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Their documentary “The Last Lions” (2011) follows a lioness raising cubs among the buffalo herds, and it shows both sides of this relationship: lions that depend on buffalo to survive, and buffalo that are capable of killing them.

Who wins: buffalo or lion?

There is no single winner. One healthy adult buffalo will usually defeat or drive off a single lion, and a determined herd can see off an entire pride. A coordinated pride hunting a weak or isolated buffalo usually wins in the end. Over a lifetime, though, many buffalo fall to lions, while each lion faces the risk of injury every time it hunts one.

This long contest is part of why the buffalo earned its fearsome reputation, explained in Why are Cape buffalo so dangerous?.