The Circle of Life

This does not end well for the Cape Buffalo.

It was primitive, brutal and the most excruitiatingly difficult scene I have ever witnessed. We were called lucky for having seen it.

Anyone who knows me would agree that my love and empathy for animals of any kind is beyond your run of the mill animal lover. But as I reflect nearly twenty four hours later, I would have to agree that we were, in fact, lucky to bear witness to the circle of life where life began.

Not our guide, nor any seasoned staff back at the camp had ever seen, let alone heard of a hyena taking down a buffalo. But that is exactly what we saw. From the moment of engagment, to the last breath some thirty minutes later. The buffalo was not sick or wounded, but it was certainly too old to keep up with the herd. And for that it became sustenance for what would become nearly sixty hyenas and their young when all was said and done.

It was a slow and torturous death. Unlike the mighty lion, or cheetah, or leapard who quickly suffocate their prey, the hyenas made first bite at the testicals. Once they renderdered the buffalo limp, they began to eat their way into the lower body, inch by inch. A death by disembowlment. The buffalo moaned and kicked and thrashed its head about for some thirty, pain wrenching minutes, but it only delayed the inevitable.

I felt the weight of the world as I watched. I coped by viewing most of it through the lens of my camera. It was the easiest way to distance myself from the carnage. Unfortunately I couldn’t silence the moans of the buffalo.

Nevertheless, I will never shake this experience, nor do I want to. It’s one thing to understand the concept, “Circle of Life”, but another thing entirely to see the lesson play out before you.

The wildebeest were equally disturbed by the scene.

And finally, yes, there is video. I took nearly eight minutes of unedited video. I haven’t watched it, nor do I think I ever will again. But, if you’re so inclined…