American tourist Mckenna Wentworth witnessed the attack during a safari in southwestern Kenya with her family. A 30-year-old tourist from Minnesota recorded a 30-minute interaction between a lion and a zebra from just 30 meters away.
In the video, the mother zebra stands in the open grassland and its newborn cubs lying on the ground, a herd of wildebeest grazing nearby. Young zebras weighing about 32 kg slowly emerged from the amniotic sac before struggling to stand. As soon as it took its first steps, the lion suddenly rushed forward and headed straight for the defenseless young zebra. The big cat weighing more than 180 kg grabbed the neck of its prey with teeth up to 10 cm long. The young zebra hobbled and was dragged by the lion in front of the tourists.
“The way a lion bites a zebra’s neck is so cruel. It all started when we noticed some animals behaving strangely from afar, so our guide drove up close. We saw it. The mother zebra was giving birth. The lion usually doesn’t hunt after mating. The male lion waited for about 30 minutes, but he couldn’t hold it any longer and rushed to eat the young zebra. could step back to the amniotic sac and cry out,” Wentworth shared.
Zebras are among the animals with the longest gestation period in the animal kingdom. A typical female zebra is 13 months pregnant and gives birth to only one young at a time.