[imagesource:jamesanderson/flickr]
As most of the rugby-playing nations have come to realise, you don’t mess with a springbok.
Great Plains Conservation, a renowned conservation safari company, recently shared a remarkable wildlife encounter between a springbok and an eagle that was captured at Mara Plains Camp in the Masai Mara, and it proves that when a child is threatened, a mother doesn’t give a toss about their rankings in the food chain.
The video shows an eagle swooping down into the long grass where a baby gazelle lay. The eagle was able to grab the little gazelle before it could do anything. But all hope was not lost for the baby gazelle, as his mother was right there, and channelling her inner Siya, she rammed straight into the eagle, knocking him off her little one.
Martial eagles, known as Africa’s largest eagles, are a powerful species with a wingspan reaching up to 2,6 metres, these birds are renowned for their strength and hunting abilities. But as we said, this is a springbok.
Unfortunately, even springboks lose a fight now and then, and in the end, the eagle proved too lithe and persistent for the mother gazelle, eventually killing the baby. Nature is cruel sometimes.
[source:latestsightings]
