Watch: Persistent lions dig a warthog out of its burrow
This little pig should have made its home out of bricks …
Stephan Tüngler, CEO of a German tour company, filmed this short clip of a lion pride digging a warthog out of its burrow in northern Botswana. After escaping an initial attack from the lions, the warthog fled to the apparent safety of its underground burrow. But the persistent cats were not letting a potential meal get away that easily (Warning: some may find the footage a bit graphic).
According to Tüngler, “the lions were very patient and they were working hard for the meal.” Taking it in turns, the pride of six spent an hour digging the warthog out of its burrow before making quick work of their prey.
Warthogs typically hole up in abandoned aardvark burrows, preferring to reverse into their underground homes so that they can burst out if necessary. In this case, the bunker provided only temporary safety from the determined lions.
Lions have been filmed digging warthogs out of their burrows before and research suggests that although the pig-like animals are not really large enough to satisfy the hunger of an entire pride, they are sometimes hunted “due to their sympatry with lions, their relatively slow evasion speed and their lower level of vigilance.”