Lion Pounces, Kills Unsuspecting Heron in Amsterdam Zoo

Even in zoos, the circle of life carries
on.

Max Quinn was vacationing at Amsterdam’s
Artis Zoo when he captured this footage of a lion attacking a water
bird that wandered up to the wrong pond. In the zoo’s lion
enclosure, a female big
cat^[1] creeps out of the
shadows and stalks up to a heron drinking by the water. The cat
stealthily inches toward the bird, but freezes when the bird turns
its head.

Then, after a few beats, the bird shifts
its gaze away and the lion lunges. The bird tries to flap away but
the cat grabs it and pulls it down. The heron is dead in an
instant, and two other lions rush into the frame.

The heron’s landing in the enclosure
“triggers that stalk-and-pounce hunting approach,” says Paul
Funston^[2], senior lion program
director for Panthera^[3], the global wild cat
conservation organization. “It’s in the genetic
make-up.”

Herons are to Amsterdam what pigeons are
to New York City—they’re
ubiquitous^[4]. Hundreds of pairs flock
to the city to scavenge for fish near markets and
canals.

“These [skills] are intrinsically genetically programed into
cats,” Funston says, but “I think these are the sort of things they
refine over time.”

In the wild, young animals get a chance to watch their parents
hunt. Funston says that when he sees wild big cats hunting, the
youngsters will sometimes mess up by making themselves too obvious
or not timing their attack at the right time.

“It’s these sort of finer skills of the actual hunt that they
learn through participation and watching other lions hunt,” Funston
says.

While it’s unclear just how much practice the Amsterdam Zoo’s
lion had before the surprise visitor appeared, her swift
instinctive response ensured the unlucky heron never left.