Wildebeest bulls Attack and Injure Wild Dog | CLASSIC WILDLIFE

Hunting is extremely unpredictable. Horns and hooves offer a powerful defense against claws and teeth. Teamwork increases a hunter's odds, but doesn't guarantee a meal. Safari guide, Mark Tennant, witnessed predator-prey combat up close and personal. I was lucky enough to be working in Northern Botswana, where I had a pack on the property, and I spent six years observing this wild dog pack. Every year, the dog's dead, and little puppies are born, and usually, they're born with white tips to the tail. And one year, one dog was born with a black tip to the tail. Although easy to identify, she was the litter's runt, and the lowest dog in the pack. But Mark liked her instantly, and affectionately named her Blacktip. One afternoon, while being with the dogs, they got up to hunt. Too young to participate, Blacktip tagged along to learn hunting protocol. The alpha male and female led the pack, and they saw wildebeests in the distance. Usually, when the prey see a wild dog coming, they run like hell. But on this occasion, the wildebeests decided to stand their ground. They're being aggressive, defending themselves by being aggressive. This becomes very dramatic, because you've got this battle, and it's to the death. You had wildebeests chasing dogs, and vice versa. And I just didn't even know which way to point my camera. There was so much action. Then all of a sudden, the big dominant male wildebeest, he broke from the herd, and he started running at full speed, seeing one of the wild dogs at the back of the pack. One of the weaklings. 14 times heavier than Blacktip, with a weight of 270 kilograms, and with horns strong enough to withstand an ax blow, the bull packs a powerful punch. I thought she was dead. And all of a sudden, all the dogs ran up towards her, and started smelling her, and they started making this unusual sound. And they just went absolutely wild, running after those wildebeests. I lost focus of the battle, and I just saw this dog lying there, my favorite dog, Blacktip. And while I was just staring at this, three or four minutes later, I noticed the twitch of an ear. Maybe Blacktip wasn't dead. Her ear was moving. You could see the pain in her body. And I was just praying that the wildebeest didn't notice this and go after it and kill her. But luckily, the wild dogs managed to distract the wildebeest long enough, and she limped out of that area, lucky to have lived.