Warthogs
By Simon Blakeney
One of the most amusing behaviours that didn’t make it into the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Dynasties Lions episode was watching the lions trying to dig down to catch warthogs. When there are no wildebeest around, warthogs are one of the lions' main sources of food. The warthogs live out on the savannah and they’re very quick – they would outrun lions in a straight race. If they’re being chased, the warthogs will often bolt off into one of their many burrows, usually old aardvark burrows or similar.
But if they were really hungry or feeling particularly tenacious or it was young ones who had been hunting, then they might try and dig the warthogs out.
The lions would then look incredibly frustrated at the loss of a meal and quite often they’d just give up and walk off. But if they were really hungry or feeling particularly tenacious or it was young ones who had been hunting, then they might try and dig the warthogs out. The warthogs go into the burrow backwards, and some have really serious tusks they will use to defend themselves, so the lions try and dig around the hole to force the warthog back out above ground where they might be able to catch them.
This could involve a lot of digging however – the cubs in particular weren’t very good at digging because they were smaller and not as strong as the adults. The warthogs would get pretty disgruntled and they’d scoop up big facefuls of mud with their snouts, and then chuck them at the lions as they were trying to dig them out.
About a year in, we watched Charm’s two youngest cubs attempt this - huge clouds of dust kept being chucked up out of the burrow by the warthog and up into the the cubs’ faces, and they’d emerge filthy and dirty but they’d try it again and again and again. It took four or five facefuls of mud before they finally gave up. There were one or two occasions when the lions did successfully dig one out, but normally they’d just try until they’d had enough of mud being thrown at them.
One day, we saw one of the big lionesses chasing a warthog piglet. She’d been chasing it for a while – they are usually an easy target – but at one point it turned around and, barely bigger than a large puppy, it bit her on the nose, which really shocked her. She jumped and the piglet jumped and then the chase resumed, although the piglet at least had a slight head-start this time.
