Battle at Kruger is an eight-minute amateur wildlife video that depicts an unfolding confrontation between a herd of
Cape BuffaloThe African Buffalo, Affalo or Cape Buffalo is a large African bovid. It is up to 1.7 meters high, 3.4 meters long. Savannah type buffaloes weigh 500-900 kg, with only males, normally larger than females, reaching the upper weight range...
, a small pride of
lionThe Lion is one of four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
s, and one or two
crocodileA crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...
s. The video was shot in September 2004 at the Transport Dam
watering holeA waterhole can refer to:* In Australia, a waterhole is a permanent source of water, particularly in the desert. It is usually a deep hole in rock that has filled with rainwater or is fed by the Great Artesian Basin, water beneath the ground in Central Australia...
in
Kruger National ParkKruger National Park is the largest game reserve in South Africa. It covers 18,989 square km and extends 350 km from north to south and 60 km from east to west....
,
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
, during a Safari guided by Frank Watts. It was filmed by videographer David Budzinski and photographer Jason Schlosberg.
After being posted on
YouTubeYouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google...
in 2007,
Battle at Kruger received 21 million views and became a
viral videoA viral video is a video clip that gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email or Instant messaging, blogs and other media sharing websites...
sensation and was widely praised for its dramatic depiction of wildlife on the African
savannahSavannah or savanna is a type of grassland.It can also mean:-Software:* GNU Savannah, an aggregation of software development projects affiliated with the GNU project-Places in the USA:...
.
Battle at Kruger is an eight-minute amateur wildlife video that depicts an unfolding confrontation between a herd of
Cape BuffaloThe African Buffalo, Affalo or Cape Buffalo is a large African bovid. It is up to 1.7 meters high, 3.4 meters long. Savannah type buffaloes weigh 500-900 kg, with only males, normally larger than females, reaching the upper weight range...
, a small pride of
lionThe Lion is one of four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
s, and one or two
crocodileA crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...
s. The video was shot in September 2004 at the Transport Dam
watering holeA waterhole can refer to:* In Australia, a waterhole is a permanent source of water, particularly in the desert. It is usually a deep hole in rock that has filled with rainwater or is fed by the Great Artesian Basin, water beneath the ground in Central Australia...
in
Kruger National ParkKruger National Park is the largest game reserve in South Africa. It covers 18,989 square km and extends 350 km from north to south and 60 km from east to west....
,
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
, during a Safari guided by Frank Watts. It was filmed by videographer David Budzinski and photographer Jason Schlosberg.
After being posted on
YouTubeYouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google...
in 2007,
Battle at Kruger received 21 million views and became a
viral videoA viral video is a video clip that gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email or Instant messaging, blogs and other media sharing websites...
sensation and was widely praised for its dramatic depiction of wildlife on the African
savannahSavannah or savanna is a type of grassland.It can also mean:-Software:* GNU Savannah, an aggregation of software development projects affiliated with the GNU project-Places in the USA:...
. It became one of YouTube's most popular videos, with more than 46 million views and 55 thousand comments , and won the Best Eyewitness Video in the 2nd Annual YouTube Video Awards. The video was also the subject of an article in the 25 June 2007 issue of
TimeTime is an American newsmagazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong. As of 2009, Time no longer publishes a Canadian advertiser edition...
magazine, and was featured in the first episode of
ABC NewsABC News is a division of American television network ABC, owned by The Walt Disney Company. Its current president is David Westin.-Current programs:* America This Morning* Good Morning America* Good Morning America Weekend Edition...
'
i-Caughti-Caught is an ABC News newsmagazine program hosted by Bill Weir. It premiered August 7, 2007 at 10:00PM ET. Originally a midseason project, six episodes were ordered to air during 2007. It also briefly aired in Australia on the Nine Network...
, which aired on 7 August 2007. A National Geographic documentary on the video debuted on the
National Geographic ChannelNational Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society...
on 11 May 2008.
Background information
Taken from a small vehicle on the opposite side of the watering hole with a digital camcorder, the video begins with the herd of buffalo approaching the water. The lions charge and disperse the herd, picking off a young buffalo and unintentionally knocking it into the water while attempting to make a kill. While the lions try to drag the buffalo out of the water, it is grabbed by a crocodile, who fights for it before giving up and leaving it to the lions. The lions sit down and prepare to eat, but are quickly surrounded by the massively reorganized buffalo, who move in and begin charging and kicking at the lions. After a battle which sees one lion being tossed into the air by a buffalo, the baby buffalo—still alive, to the astonishment of the onlookers—escapes into the herd. The emboldened buffalo then proceed to chase the remaining lions away.
Expert commentary
Two veterinarians and animal behaviorists interviewed by
Time assert that the behavior exhibited by the buffalo is not unusual. Dr. Sue McDonnell of the
University of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and is one of several institutions that claims to have been the first university in America...
(School of
Veterinary MedicineVeterinary medicine is the application of medical, diagnostic, surgical, dental, and therapeutic principles to companion, domestic, exotic, wildlife, and production animals. Veterinary science is vital to the study and protection of animal production practices, herd health and monitoring the spread...
) said of the video:
"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."
It is, however, rare for such events to be captured on film even by professional wildlife photographers. Indeed Dereck Joubert, a photographer and writer for
National Geographic said of the video:
"There is no doubt at all that the tourist who shot that scene [...] was unbelievably lucky. I mean, we would've considered ourselves lucky to have had that whole scene happen in front of us."
External links