Despite being bitten by a pack of African wild dogs to the point of sticking out their intestines, the impala was determined to fight to the end to try and save his life.
Footage of the impala’s tragic moment, captured by a visitor at Kruger Nature Reserve (South Africa), shows the moment an impala was knocked down by an African wild dog.
While the African wild dog was biting its prey to enjoy the fruits of the hunt, suddenly the antelope stood up, using its horns to fight off the predator. Because the antelope’s belly skin had been bitten by a wild dog before, the antelope’s intestines and organs fell out when the animal stood up.
The impala now seems to have not felt the pain, using all of its remaining strength to fight off the predator.
However, the last desperate efforts of the impala were not enough to keep the animal alive. Other African wild dogs in the pack quickly appeared, surrounding the critically injured antelope. Not long after that, the impala accepted its fate as a meal for wild dogs.
What happened left the tourists who witnessed the scene shocked and sad. The clip also went viral after being posted on social media. Many netizens have expressed their condolences for the impala’s last-minute desperate attempt.
“I’ve always known nature is very harsh, but I never expected it to be so cruel. The image of an antelope being eaten alive, feeling every fiber of my body being ripped open by a predator, is terrifying. I thought that the antelope had enough strength to take back his life, but obviously things are not so easy,” one netizen commented after watching the clip.
Some netizens have criticized those who were just standing outside to film the scene that happened, but did not intervene to save the antelope’s life. However, these opinions have been refuted when most people believe that humans should not interfere with nature but let everything happen according to its laws.
“Nature has its own laws and let everything happen according to that law. Humans should just stand aside and observe and should not interfere in anything. If the antelope were to be saved today. , is there any certainty that it will survive tomorrow? If the antelope is saved, what will be the fate of the African wild dogs?”, one Twitter user commented.
The African wild dog, also known as the spirit wolf or the zebra wolf, is a mammal in the canine family, mainly distributed in Africa. They are highly social animals, living in herds with separate dominance hierarchies between males and females.
African wild dogs are considered masters of the “art of hunting in groups”, when individuals in the pack can work together in a very good way thanks to a sense of discipline and ability to unite. Scientific statistics show that African wild dogs achieve a success rate of up to 75% for each hunting trip.
Meanwhile, the impala is one of the most abundant antelope species in the savanna of Africa. Impala antelopes are sexually dimorphic, in which males weigh between 40 and 75 kg and females weigh between 30 and 50 kg. Only male impalas have horns, 45 to 90cm long, while females have no horns.
Due to their large numbers, the impala is a favorite hunting target of savannah carnivores such as lions, leopards, hyenas, and African wild dogs.
African wild dog, a small but extremely intelligent and dangerous carnivore. A wild dog can hunt a large antelope many times stronger than it thanks to the “trick” of biting the nose and dragging the prey until it is slaughtered by its teammates.
A small wild dog aggressively chased the wildebeest. In terms of weight, an adult African wild dog is only about 18-36 kg. Meanwhile, wildebeest can weigh up to 120-270 kg.
At first, the antelope was very calm, but due to being subjective, before using its horns to attack, it was bitten by a cunning wild dog.
Soon, the big, strong antelope was lying prostrate, its mouth full of blood at the feet of the mighty, agile wild dog.
And here is a sanatorium who was also “trapped” by the poison of the wild animal in the Madikwe Reserve in South Africa.
Once the prey has been grabbed, the African wild dog’s teammates immediately pull over and knock the prey down.
Regarding the probability of killing prey when hunting, wild dogs achieve a rate of 80%, which is not inferior to lions.
The African wild dog (Lycaon pictus), also called the painted dog or Cape hunting dog, is a wild canine which is a native species to sub-Saharan Africa. It is the largest wild canine in Africa, and the only extant member of the genus Lycaon, which is distinguished from Canis by dentition highly specialised for a hypercarnivorous diet, and by a lack of dewclaws. It is estimated that about 6,600 adults (including 1,400 mature individuals) live in 39 subpopulations that are all threatened by habitat fragmentation, human persecution, and outbreaks of disease. As the largest subpopulation probably includes fewer than 250 individuals, the African wild dog has been listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1990.