A pride of lions had far from an easy meal when they chose to eat porcupine for lunch, with one unlucky cub getting the point loud and clear.
The pride spotted two of the spiky creatures in the Kalahari Desert in South Africa and decided the slow moving rodents were fair game.
One porcupine certainly dented the pride of one cub, when the big cat was left with one of its quills stuck through its nose.
Getting the point: A lion cub tries to remove a porcupine’s quill from its nose after trying to eat the rodent for lunch in the South African desert
Dragging it out: The cub winches in pain and closes both eyes as it uses its paws to try and pull the quill from out of its nostril
Now how are we going to eat this? The pride watch the slow moving rodent walk into view and ponder their next move
Time to strike: One of the cubs circles the porcupine and looks for the chance to strike, while the others appear to have already lost interest
But the porcupines victory was short lived, with the pride’s alpha male later devouring both rodents.
The encounter was captured by Philip Eglise. He said the lion pride initially consisted of five cubs and two adult females. The group attacked the two porcupines who managed to hold them off for around 15 minutes.
The 38-year-old of Kilndown, Kent, said the porcupines quills ‘are an exceptionally effective defence’. He said rather than firing the quills, porcupines rush backwards into the faces of their attackers which ’causes the quills to become detached’.
He said: ‘This can cause very serious injuries or infections which predators can die from.
‘This happened a couple of times during this particular encounter, and the after-effects of one such attack can be seen where one of the cubs is attempting to remove a quill from its nose.
‘The cub continued to paw at its nose for some time afterwards; it would have surely been very painful.’
Mr Eglise said eventually the porcupines retreated into a bush, which he expected would ‘save them’.
Get it out! The cub looks in pain as it seeks assistance from another member of the pride to get the quill out of its nose
Why did you do that? The cub, who has now removed the quill, looks forlorn as stares at the porcupine, perhaps seeking sympathy
Bush retreat: The porcupines fled to the bushes where photographer Philip Eglise, who captured these pictures, assuming they would be safe
Check mate! The alpha male then swooped in and ate both porcupines; the lion is pictured above licking its lips after eating them
But the pride male then arrived and killed them both.
Mr Eglise said: ‘Sometimes nature feels horribly cruel and unfair to our modern sanitised lives, and to witness such a scene is always emotional.
‘To see two such plucky animals, massively smaller and outnumbered by their attackers, was genuinely difficult to watch and I was hoping the porcupines’ strong defence would eventually win the day.’
Most lions now live in eastern and southern Africa, and their numbers there are rapidly decreasing.