15 Animals Protecting Their Own

15 Animals Protecting Their Own
When a charming antelope are hunted by a huge cat or a zebra tries to flee an apex predator's grasp, we feel horrible, but sometimes the roles are reversed, and what appears to be a "walk in the park" for the predator turns into a nightmare. If you want to see some underdogs teach some naughty animals a lesson or two, stay tuned as we count down 15 animals protecting their own.

Giraffe Vs Lion

Lions rarely target giraffes because they understand how much effort and energy it takes to bring down a fully grown giraffe. When food is scarce, however, they will go for what is available, and lions will be forced to hunt giraffes. This is no simple task, as you can see in the first excerpt. Watch this giraffe constantly trample this lion. The lion is lying down, and the giraffe is literally killing it in front of the pride, unable to do anything about it. How’s that for a turn of events? One lion facing a giraffe doesn’t have much of a chance of bringing it down. Even a group of lions will struggle to take down a giraffe, as shown in this clip, in which the lions are trying to kill a baby giraffe, but the mother is all too powerful, defending her offspring.

If the lions are unable to close in on the giraffe, the lions' chances of survival are decreased. A lion will die instantly with a single blow from the giraffe. Watch this lioness get overrun by this giraffe and the lioness is very lucky the giraffe didn’t get a good kick in there, or it could have spelled death for the hungry feline. Finally, this mother giraffe defends her baby when the lions almost manage to snatch it. This was a close call, but the lions still came up empty-handed. These battles between Giraffe and lions are legendary!

Wildebeest

Wildebeest are the prey of choice for many predators in the African savannah. Their meat is tender, and they are high in numbers, so the odds of catching a wildebeest are exceptionally good. When the great migration of the wildebeest begins, most predators are on their high horses because they know it will be an all-you-can-eat-buffet for weeks to come. The leopard's hunting strategy is to either ambush or stalks its prey. Leopards lack the ability to chase down their prey across long distances like other big cats.

As a result, wildebeest are not their prey of choice, although they will pursue them if the opportunity arises like in this clip when this leopard comes out of nowhere to tackle this young wildebeest, the leopard doesn’t expect a swift and surgical response from the mother which charges the big cat and rams into it with its horns, chasing the feline away. A wild dog’s tactic when hunting large prey is to intimidate them into running. Their teamwork usually pays off breaking the rank of the wildebeest which gives the dogs the gap they need to get to the calves. During this chase, these wild dogs are trying to get to the calf, but the mother wildebeest is resilient and every time it looks like one of the dogs has the calf by the neck, the mother intervenes until the dogs are out of tricks and decide to abandon the hunt, which is a rare occurrence.

Finally, this young leopard grabs hold of this young wildebeest which struggles to free itself, but the mother approaches and as soon as the leopard sees it, it runs away. The wildebeest proceeds to try and lift the calf up, so it’s less vulnerable, but the calf is badly injured and remains on the ground. The leopard returns to see if it can still grab the calf, but the mother stands her ground and defies the cat. However, the mother kind of knows the calf is doomed, and eventually, the cat gets its prize and takes it away.