[plogypeskelry]

By Leon Watson: 11:16 GMT, 16 May 2012

These amazing shots show a fight to the death between two lions and a hippo. After attacking and driving the hippo into deep water,
the pair of lions play a waiting game, lying still on nearby rocks for two hours before the hippo ventures out.

Having waited for it to get clear of its bolt-hole, the lions pounce and the plucky juvenile hippo puts up a fight, chasing them away.



But one lion gets onto the hippo's back and the other attacks from the front leaving the hippo charging with them to the nearest bit
of a water in a bid to get them off.

But the water is shallow and the lions manage to flip the hippo over and drown it, before they are joined by a third lion for dinner.


Photographer Andrew Schoeman, 39, said: 'I was woken early one morning in the Sabi Sands Game reserve in South Africa by distress
calls though I didn't know at that point it was a hippo.

'I followed the noise and saw the young hippo between three to five-years-old in shallow water surrounded by the three lions.

'Every time the hippo wanted to get away, the lions would go for him and he would then retreat back into the water.

'I think the lions attacked the hippo earlier than when I got there and the hippo had managed to get into the pool of water that was
too deep for the lions to go into.



'From the scratches on the hippo I would guess that the lions had been going after the hippo for quite some time before I arrived.

'This carried on for a while and then the lions went to lay down on a rock close to the water's edge. About two hours passed and eventually the hippo slowly emerged from the water.

'The hippo seemed not to see the lions crouched close by as they were very still and did not move.


'It looked around and all seemed clear, so he started walking away. The lions waited until he got about 50m from the pool of water
before chasing after him.

'The first lion was chased off by the hippo but the second lion jumped onto the hippo's back which allowed the first lion to also grab
hold of the hippo.

'At this point the hippo realised he was in trouble and headed for the river with both lions attached.

'It ran into the water and the lions held on but as the water was now shallower than the first pool and the lions were able to stand,
they hung on and managed to pull the hippo onto its side.

'They then flipped it over onto its back and held the hippo upside down in the water until it stopped moving, before they started to
eat it.'

Mr Schoeman added: 'I have never seen anything like this before. Lions are very opportunistic and will catch what they can whenever
they can.

Although it is not pleasant to see animals die and get killed it was a once in a lifetime experience.