When you’re a hungry lion, most animals probably seem like a good bet at snack time.

But this lion certainly bit off more than it could chew when it pounced on a pangolin.

British wildlife guide Mark Sheridan-Johnson captured this curious big cat on film, which spent a lot of time trying to devour the strange creature in the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania.

The rare armored pangolin had the perfect defense tactic: curl up into a ball and stay there, no matter what.

This looks like a tasty morsel…mmm, it’s a little crunchy…the lion begins his attempt to feast on the pangolin.

Maybe if I use my claws I can remove the shell… wow, this is hard… no, maybe it’s time to try a different tactic.

Footage shows how the hapless lion appeared confused by its spherical prey, as it struck the creature with its paws and even attempted to carry it in its mouth.

Sheridan-Johnson, 31, from Newcastle, was showing a group of tourists around the game reserve when she saw the little pangolin fighting for its life.

“The pangolin is an extremely difficult animal to see and is considered by many guides in Africa to be the holy grail of sightings,” he said.

“You can spend your whole life wandering around the mountains and never see one.” So when we came across one being attacked by a lion, we couldn’t believe our eyes.

“Evidently the pangolin was having a really bad day.”

Hello, is anyone there? Okay, this is your last chance… come out with your hands up or, or… I’ll have to leave you alone and find something else to gnaw on.

Oh I give up! That has never happened to me before… I’m going to look for something soft to eat.

Pangolins are nocturnal animals and, according to Mark, this one was peacefully sheltering in the bushes before being discovered by the two-year-old lion.

“We were all on the side of the pangolin, hoping it would come out alive,” he said. “The lion didn’t really know what to do with him. The situation made her increasingly frustrated. The scales are so sharp that carrying the pangolin can’t have been very pleasant. The pangolin’s shell is made of an organic bone structure called keratin and makes up about twenty percent of the animal’s body weight.

When captured by large predators such as lions, they exercise their muscles in a cutting action to lacerate the mouths of their adversaries.

The injuries caused can be serious for the animal trying to eat the pangolin.

Pangolins survive by using their sensitive tongues, which can grow up to 16 inches long, to probe anthills and termite mounds to eat the insects inside.

“In the end, the lion gave up and walked away in search of something else and the pangolin escaped,” Mark said.

“He stayed in his ball for a long time until it got dark, just to make sure he was safe.”

The Selous Game Reserve is the largest protected wildlife reserve in Africa, covering five percent of Tanzania’s total land mass.

It is located in the remote southeast of the country and is made up of mighty rivers, hills and extensive plains.

The reserve is named after British explorer Frederick Courtney Selous, who wrote a book about his travels in the region and died there during World War I.