Incredible moment lion takes on crocodile in war over hippo

    

THIS is the amazing moment a lion fought off the snapping jaws of a crocodile so it could feed on a dead hippo

The pictures were taken in the Maasi Mara nature reserve, in Kenya and show hungry lion braving a crocodile-infested river to get to an upside down hippo, which had died overnight of natural causes.
The incident was witnessed and captured on camera by Richard Chew, an IT manager from San Francisco, USA who was on holiday with his wife.

 
The pictures were taken in the Maasi Mara nature reserve, in Kenya [CATERS/RICHARD CHEW]

 
The lion takes a mighty swing at the croc's snapping jaws [CATERS/RICHARD CHEW]

 
The whole river was infested with crocodiles [CATERS/RICHARD CHEW ]

 
The lion defiantly snarls at the croc [CATERS/RICHARD CHEW]

"Two lions spotted the hippo at first but couldn't reach it as they were on the wrong side of the river.
"The lions left in search of other prey and we went to explore a different area." But when Richard returned to the same spot at the end of the day, the two lions had managed to get to the other side and were battling with 15 crocodiles for the free meal.
"The lions were really showing no fear. The river was full of crocodiles who were wanting a piece of the hippo but the lions were putting up a good fight.
"It was amazing to watch the wildlife food chain in action."