Even in zoos, the circle of life carries on.

Max Quinn was vacationing at Amsterdam’s Artis Zoo when he captured this footage of a lion attacking a water bird that wandered up to the wrong pond. In the zoo’s lion enclosure, a female big cat creeps out of the shadows and stalks up to a heron drinking by the water. The cat stealthily inches toward the bird, but freezes when the bird turns its head.

Then, after a few beats, the bird shifts its gaze away and the lion lunges. The bird tries to flap away but the cat grabs it and pulls it down. The heron is dead in an instant, and two other lions rush into the frame.

The