Battle at Kruger

The Battle at Kruger video proves that sometimes all it takes to become a massive viral video success is to be at the right place at the right time. David Budzinski caught a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence on video in South Africa’s Kruger National Park when a pride of lions wrested a Cape buffalo calf from an opportunistic crocodile only to find the herd of buffalo had come back to reclaim their own.

The video, which clocks in at an unusually long seven minutes, has earned tens of millions of views and has even been spun off into its own hour-long documentary with National Geographic. However, it took Budzinski quite a while and no small amount of effort to find a profitable home for his unique piece of wildlife footage. When he first returned from the veld, Budzinski tried selling the video to a disinterested Nat Geo, the The New York Times reported.

Unlike many other online video hits, Battle at Kruger is a discrete unit. There are few relevant spoofs, responses, remixes or redubs. It’s a video that you watch and then tell your friends, “You have got to watch this!” The video stands on its own as a unique reel of wildlife videography.

More coverage:
Battle at Kruger Goes Prime-Time