Behavior Guide: scavenging

Scavenging generally involves less work and less risk than hunting, and lions prefer to scavenge when the opportunity presents itself. Lions are often alerted to the presence of a carcass by vultures, and the sight of vultures circling and landing or grouped on the ground usually proves an irresistible lure. Lions will eat carcasses dead of natural causes such as disease, and will also steal carcasses from other predators including wild dogs, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas and even other lions.

lion with hyenas
Their greater size means that lions have little trouble seizing a carcass from solitary species such as cheetahs and leopards, but predators in groups pose a more formidable challenge. For example, large groups of hyenas actively defend their carcass against lions and often succeed in keeping it. However, lions are more likely to scavenge from hyenas than the reverse.

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