David Bough was observing buffalo standing in a shallow river during a recent trip to South Africa when the animals suddenly became agitated. The photographer trained his camera on the riverbank and discovered that lions were hiding in tall grass, sizing up the buffalo.
The U.K. resident, who was visiting Kruger National Park, shared one of his images to the South African National Parks group Facebook page and asked, “How many lions in this photograph?” in what became a popular post.
(The image appears twice atop this post and the answer is detailed below and revealed in the bottom image. Viewers can save and enlarge the top images for a closer look.)
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Bough, who was vacationing at Crocodile Bridge Safari Lodge, captured several images of this dramatic confrontation between predators and prey.
The photographer told FTW Outdoors that he was standing on an observation deck and half-expected a visit from the Vurhami lion pride, which often hunts near the lodge.
The buffalo had been cooling themselves in the river for at least an hour before sensing trouble.
“I grabbed my camera, which I always kept handy on the observation deck, and scanned the bank,” Bough said. “Sure as eggs is eggs, there were the Vurhami gang watching from the reeds.”
The buffalo grouped together in a defensive posture before rushing across the river. Bough lost sight of the lions, temporarily, as they retreated into the reeds.
Eventually, though, the buffalo circled back downstream “and two of them charged into the reeds, scattering the lions, who decided that discretion was the better part of valor and hightailed it out of harm’s way,” Bough said. “It was a great sighting.”
As for the image featured in the quiz, viewers might spot one lion at first glance, then another, and possibly another. But the fourth lion – there are only four, according to Bough – is more difficult to locate.
Bough hinted that the fourth lion is mostly hidden: “You can only see an ear and a spot of the eye.”
All four lions are circled in black in the bottom image.
Kruger National Park, one of Africa’s largest and most popular game reserves, is located in northeastern South Africa. Visitors can observe lions, elephants, rhinos, leopards and buffaloes, as well as a vast array of other mammals and birds.