‘Battle at Kruger’ is perhaps the most epic homemade safari video ever filmed. It’s also one of the most viewed, having raked up 83 million views on YouTube!
The now-legendary video was caught on camera in South Africa’s Kruger National Park in autumn 2004 by an amateur whilst on a guided safari game drive, just meters from the action.
Chevron employee David Budzinski was on holiday in Kruger National Park with his friend Jason Schlosberg, and ended up filming what any professional wildlife cameraman would see as the pinnacle of their career. It’s no wonder that the clip has so many YouTube views, and been featured in TIME magazine, National Geographic, and countless other wildlife websites and publications.
If you’ve not yet seen it, set aside eight minutes right now to watch this epic animal confrontation. Not for the faint-hearted, the eight-and-a-half-minute clip shows a graphic struggle for survival between a herd of buffalo, a small pride of lions, and some opportunistic crocodiles in the water.
Watch the full ‘Battle at Kruger’ video:
Most viewers will be rooting for the buffalo calf, but it’s also a powerful vision of the relationships between different animals and within a herd. Could you imagine the feeling of actually being there while this tale played out in front of your 4×4? It’s dramatic enough on the computer screen!
The video starts with a pair of adult buffalo with a calf leading a large herd alongside a river. From a distance, a group of four lions are resting and watching, and quickly assume a stalking position. Moments later the lions ambush the buffalo, sending them running, and pulling the baby buffalo into the water shallow water.
The lions quickly surround the baby buffalo in the water, biting its neck in an effort to kill it. They calmly pull the buffalo onto the riverbank but are ambushed by a pair of crocodiles, one of which bites the buffalo’s rear end, and a tug of war between lions and crocodile ensues. The lions eventually win and drag the buffalo on to dry land, where they settle down to tuck into a meal.
At this point, a large buffalo herd in formation slowly approaches the lions, and a couple of the braver males make charges at the lions. At one point a lion is flung high in the air on a buffalo’s horns, and one of the lions runs away.
A group of buffalos then advances to touching distance of the lions, at which point – miraculously – the baby buffalo stands up and runs back into the herd, seemingly OK. The remaining lions are then chased off one by one, and the video ends.
Still from ‘Battle at Kruger’ – the buffalo herd takes on three lions to get a calf back
What do you think of the ‘Battle at Kruger’ video? Share your thoughts (and even your own safari related videos) below in the comments section!
