One of the most amusing behaviours that didn’t make it into the BBC Dynasties Lions episode was watching the lions trying to dig down to catch warthogs. When there are no wildebeest around, warthogs are one of the lions’ main sources of food. The warthogs live out on the savannah and they’re very quick – they would outrun lions in a straight race. If they’re being chased, the warthogs will often bolt off into one of their many burrows, usually old aardvark burrows or similar.
In this video as we have seen the buffaloes and zebras not far from it are grazing behind them, but the target this time are the little Warthogs.
Warthogs are small, but they move very quickly and even have a horn in their mouth.
Sometimes it even attacks lions.
The lions would then look incredibly frustrated at the loss of a meal and quite often they’d just give up and walk off. But if they were really hungry or feeling particularly tenacious or it was young ones who had been hunting, then they might try and dig the warthogs out. The warthogs go into the burrow backwards, and some have really serious tusks they will use to defend themselves, so the lions try and dig around the hole to force the warthog back out above ground where they might be able to catch them.
But unfortunately for the Warthog, the predator was finally caught, with the speed and sharp teeth of lions, they quickly defeated the prey. Warthog was the lion’s full lunch.
Watch full video here: