Easy Pickings: Crocodile Devours Young Migrating Zebra

Photographer Ingo Gerlach travelled to Africa to capture the great migration on camera, witnessing a hunt in action.

The 64-year-old caught the moment the animals entered the river. 

He said: “With a fast gallop, the zebras pushed through the water. 

“The fastest ones were able to avoid the crocodiles, but then a zebra foal was caught among his family. 

“The crocodile grabbed the zebra in the middle of its body. The young animal fought hard, struggling, but it was in vain.

The animals’ death-fight took a few minutes. A second crocodile also wanted a piece of the young animal.”

More than 200,000 zebra trek across the Masai Mara plains each year, and in this Darwinian voyage, only the strongest survive. 

Around 30 of the crocodiles waited in the turbulent Mara, waiting for their chance to strike.

The predators targeted the weak and lame at the most dangerous point of their journey - the violent river swollen from the rainy season.

Having made the epic passage part way across 40,000 square kilometres of the Kenya and Serengeti game reserves, one unlucky foal crossed the river at the wrong point.

The photographer travelled from his native Germany to capture the migration last August, often referred to as The Greatest Show on Earth.

Most years around 1.7 million wildebeest migrate alongside hundreds of thousands of zebra, Thomson’s gazelles and elands.

Ingo said: “Normally, the wildebeest are the ones spotted during the great migration - only this time the wildebeests were not there, and there were more zebras.

“I took advantage of this during my stay in the Masai Mara and concentrated on this species.”