Instead of facing one hyena, a wildebeest chose to run right off a cliff in one of the riskiest escape attempts we’ve seen. It smashed its face on the landing, and the hyena was right on its tail again…
Spotted hyenas have a reputation for being scavengers, but they’re incredible hunters when they need to be. This sighting started when hyenas found a decent-sized herd of wildebeest above the banks of the Mara River.
The herd realized they were being targeted, and chaos broke out, with wildebeest running in all directions. Getting caught in a stampede can be dangerous for the predators, and the hyenas knew this.
The only option was to single out a wildebeest, and that’s exactly what one of the hyenas managed to do. Wildebeests are fantastic runners and would normally be able to outrun a single hyena.
Unfortunately for the wildebeest, it was driven near the edge of a cliff, and there was simply nowhere to run.
The wildebeest had two options: fight a hyena or take its chances running off the edge of a cliff. The wildebeest chose cliff!
It ran straight for the edge, not even hitting the brakes before leaping right off. It was almost a scene from a movie, as it flew for a few meters before smashing into the bank head-first!
The impact was so hard that the adrenaline-filled wildebeest was left completely dazed for a few seconds. This allowed the hyena to catch up, making the jump almost pointless.
With the hyena right on top of it, the wildebeest luckily managed to get its footing back and dashed quickly into the water just below. The hyena refused to run in after it, so ultimately, it was the river that saved the day.
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