TRICKY LIONS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XV, Issue XXI, 23 November 1895, Page 663

TRICKY LIONS.

SOME of the most dangerous tricks of animals are those simulating kindness. Charles Montagne, in * Tales of a Nomad,’ says that hyenas often follow lions, and finish a carcase the moment the lions have left it. Sometimes, however, the hyenas are too eager, and steal bits of meat while the lions are still at their meal. I have been told that the lion rids himself of the nuisance in the following way : he throws a piece of meat aside. When the lion is looking the other way the hyena dodges in and rushes off with the meat. Presently the lion throws another piece of meat, this time a little nearer. The hyena takes that also. At last the lion throws a piece very near indeed. The hyena, having become reckless, makes a dash at thia also ; but the lion wheels round and lays him low with a pat of his paw and a growl of annoyance. I remember at the C sutu on one occasion hearing at night the cries of a hyena in pain, mingled with an occasional short growl from a lion. This went on for about twenty minutes. The next morning we found the carcase of a hyena bitten across the neck, and marked by the claws of lions. They had evidently caught it and played with it some time before killing it I suppose this was done in revenge for the annoyance they had sustained from the hyenas.