I've seen many lions killing and/or feasting on buffalo; but I've never seen a herd of buffalo killing lions.

Go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRwTQcCH9UE

Who claism aht the lion is "king of the jungle"??

I have seen many incidents where a single buffalo successfully defended himself against lion attacks.

Buffalos are dangerous, strong animals. They are difficult to predict and make sudden, very fast moves.

What I often wonder is: A bunch of buffalos standing closely together is a great wall of defense and I doubt lions would ever manage to have any success. Yet buffalos always seem to make stupid mistakes and single animals wonder off or don't see that the rest of the heard is moving on - hence becoming an easy target.

Anyone have an explanation for that? Do they have a narrow range of eye-sight? What I mean, can they only see what is more or less in front of them so that they don't see the heard moving on or a lion approaching from the side?

Or are they simple a bit dumb?

Speaking strictly as a tourist with almost no knowledge of buffalo, my gut reaction is they are not very intelligent. Same with zebra and wildebeest. I've seen lions take one of the babies and the mothers just stand there and watch and don't attempt any type of rescue. It would appear they are either stupid or don't have much maternal feeling involved.

Perhaps since bwanamich is in the bush all the time he might enlighten us.

With Buffalo, it s question of being "dumb". Buff have good eyesight, exceptional sense of smell and hearing. Younger bulls may think they are "invincible" and attain an air of stubborness evn in the face of danger such as facing a lion(s).

In Jan´s example, my explanation is that "prey" animals have a "everyone for themself attitude" when it comes to being attacked by predators. A mother zebra can do nothing against some lionesses that have caught her faul. They know that if they try they will most likely end up dead, so they rather live to give birth another day.....One of the esieast animals to capture alive is a baby buffalo: if you push the herd they will stampede and the young will fall behind very quickly as they get tired. The mother seldomly bothers to wait or protect her stricken offspring. That is why we avoid hunting bulls in herds with young calfs. The risk of separating young from mother is high.

Interesting explanation Mich. Thanks for enlightening us.