Here we bring you a heart-wrenching story of last moments of an old lion who once use to rule over his land now starved to death and lost his pride.
The old lion was deprived of his pride and honor and eventually turned to skeleton due to lack of food because his family was driven away.
Skybed Scar the old lion in the context who used to live in Kruger National park in South Africa was well known there. These heart-wrenching images were photographed by Larry Anthony Pannell who is 64 years old and lives in California.
In his blog, he mentioned how he saw Skybed initially drinking water from watering hole. He then wrote “After he had his fill of water he struggled to his feet hardly able to stand. What you did not notice while he was drinking, he literally was nothing but skin and bones.”
He explained how the lion struggled to move away from water. He was so worn out, starved and fragile that he stumbled in every step as if trying to catch the breath. He patiently tried to descend but the poor tiger instead collapsed. He further added,”It was evident he was in his last days if not his last hours on this earth.”
Larry and his mates went to have a closer look at the beast “We found him lying in the grass, exhausted unable to move. We were no more than five feet from him as he lay dying in the shade of a tree.”
Larry said “Dropping my camera we stared at one another locking eyes for what seemed for an eternity. I just wanted him to know that he would not die alone as he struggled to breathe, his chest rising only every so often. Then the last twitch of an ear, his last breath, he was gone. The King was dead.”
He later said: “I knew that I was witnessing something about the real nature of both life and death. I sat with him only feet away, locking eyes and starting at one another as I watched for an hour as the life leave his body. I wanted him to know he would not die alone. Not wanting to sound crass I remember when my grandmother was in the hospital and I visited her for the last time the night she passed.”
“We did not say a word, both of us just knew this was the end and we just stared at each other locking eyes. This is the first time since then that I felt the same feeling – connecting with another being on a spiritual level, the just knowing.”
The monument of the pride depends on particular roles with lionesses the primary hunters and ruling males responsible for safeguard the pride’s territory.
Nearly about two to three years old, young males leave the pride and strive to take over another male’s pride. Fights to the death take place infrequently, and many a male in his prime has fallen gain or protect a pride.
Male lions habitually leave the pride after losing out in a fight to an opponent and it is possible that the lion in these pictures had suffered that fate and eventually starved to death. The one who survives become nomads, and have to fend for themselves to lose weight, and scavenge more than they hunt as they grow older.
