This is the horrifying moment more than 40 crocodiles ripped a zebra limb from limb in a river in Kenya’s Maasai Mara national park.
Her head appeared above the water ripped from her body, photographer Jean-Francois Raux said: ‘There was no more body behind that head but she seemed alive, her eyes imploring’
One of the crocodiles managed to swallow a whole leg after it ripped it from the zebra in a ‘death roll’ while other crocodiles were not so fortunate
The beheaded neck of the zebra is held in the two-and-a-half ton grip of one of the Nile crocodiles as the others with bloody jaws can be seen polishing off the scraps
‘Everything was going very fast. More than forty crocodiles were fighting for their share of the zebra. It was real carnage.’
The crocodiles fought each other for a bite of food as they ripped the zebra to pieces in less than 15 minutes.
While most of the 300 zebra herd were able to get across the river the unfortunate zebra’s life was taken and it was completely devoured in less than 15 minutes
Initially a few crocodiles took hold of the zebra and dragged it down to the bottom where they drown it before they were joined by other crocodiles in eating every piece of it
Crocodiles are known for performing a vicious ‘death roll’ where they grip their prey in their jaws while spinning in the water which allows the leverage to pull off large chunks of meat.
Crocodiles have extremely slow metabolisms and can go days without food, however when they do eat they can eat up to half their colossal half-ton weight.
The ancient apex predators can make light work of a little zebra and are capable of taking down prey of more than a ton in weight.
Herds of migrating zebras must make the often fatal crossing through rivers in the Maasai Mara annually when they move across the plains to take up new pastures.