Buffalo Saves Friend From Hungry Lion

Lions might be one of the most effective hunters prowling the plains of Africa, but that's not to say that every meal comes without a challenge. In this footage, filmed at Kruger National Park in South Africa, a hungry lion is confronted by a water buffalo hurrying to the aid of its fallen herd-mate.

While the lion might have easily been killed in this encounter, such was not the case.

"Amazingly all of the animals walked away from the encounter with no major injuries, except perhaps some bruised egos on the lion's part," reports Barcroft TV.

Kruger National Park is no stranger to prey standing up to predators. In 2007, a similar scene of buffalo solidarity against attacking lions was published to YouTube, titled Battle at Kruger -- garnering over 73 million views.

In an interview with Time, biologist Dr. Sue McDonnell describes this rarely-filmed behavior:

"The larger herd is broken down into smaller harems, with a dominant male and several females and their babies. If a youngster is threatened, both the harem males and bachelor males - which usually fight with one another - will get together to try to rescue it."

Our fascination with scenes of prey animals succeeding over lions may derive from the fact that we were also once underdogs in a similar struggle during the nascent years of our evolution. Just as herd mentality has driven these buffalo to rescue their fallen members from the jaws of death, human's strong social bonds no doubt played a crucial role in the success of our species against those earliest animal threats.