The "African Brother" lion, with its strong individual combat strength and cooperative hunting strategy, occupies the top position in the food chain of the African savannah. In addition to oversized mammals such as elephants, giraffes, and rhinos, lions hunt down almost all of their larger herbivores to help them weed out the old, sick and sick.
In some TV programs about lions, we often see pictures of lions hunting bison: 3 to 5 female lions chasing a single bison, just when the bison is fleeing in a panic, suddenly a male lion joins the battle, giving the bison a fatal blow, and then the whole lion flock rushes up, pushes the bison to the ground, and begins to enjoy the fruits of coordinated combat.
It is reasonable to say that under the siege of the lions, the bison desperately tries to escape in accordance with common sense, but sometimes the bison, under the siege of the lions, does not move in place, and even if it is bitten by the lion, there will be no fierce reaction. Let's talk about this.
African bison is actually talking about African buffalo, since it is a buffalo, it is inseparable from the water source, they have to drink water every day, so they mainly inhabit grasslands and bushes close to the water source.
In order to avoid the hot sun during the day, bison often rest in the shade or soak in water, and only come out to graze in the early morning or evening, and the bison is a nocturnal animal.
Unlike the buffalo we see in our lives, the African wild buffalo is larger, about 1.8 meters tall, and the adult male weighs about 700 kilograms, and the female also weighs five or six hundred kilograms.
The temperament of the African bison is also more violent and cannot be domesticated, especially the cow that leads the cubs, and the slightest stimulation will react fiercely, which may be the nature of the mother.
Although bison is a vegan mammal, but their aggressiveness and aggression are very strong, African bison and African elephants, African lions, rhinos and leopards and called the "African Five", it can be seen that the fighting power of bison is very strong.
The strength of bison is mainly reflected in several aspects, such as large size, strength, temperament and survival strategy of the group. Strong limbs and hard horns, stepping on or on top of predators, can inflict fatal damage on the other side.
A bison is already very effective, and they tend to live in groups, with strong adult male bison holding the position of leader, enjoying the right to eat in high-quality grassland, and also taking on the responsibility of organizing family members to fight together against enemies.
When the bison are attacked by predators, they will form an impenetrable defensive wall under the leadership of the bison leader, surrounding the cubs in the middle, and the predators generally do not dare to offend easily, and rarely choose the bison cubs to attack, because this will arouse the desperate resistance of the bison herd.
However, if lions or other predators are besieging a single bison, the cattle often choose to stand by and even watch the single bison being hunted and eaten nearby, so the lions will often hunt the single bison.
Almost all animals know how to avoid danger when they encounter danger, and bison cannot sit still when they are rounded up by lions, let alone react.
In fact, on the contrary, the bison is very grumpy, not to mention the carnivores actively hunting, even if other species invade the territory of the bison, they may be expelled by the bison herd.
As mentioned above, bison have a large body size, weigh three times the weight of a lion, strong limbs, will be kicked with hooves when attacked, once the predator is kicked, it is likely to be fatally injured, the horns of the bison are long and hard, can pierce the belly of the lion, that is to say, the lion hunts the bison is a great risk.
A photographer from Norway once recorded the lions being expelled by the bison herd, and one of the male lions was forced into a tree by the herd, and the lion took the bison to disperse in the tree before daring to come down, without the slightest majesty when hunting the bison.
If hunting bison is so risky, why do lions still like to hunt bison? In fact, the answer to the question is not difficult to understand:
First of all, the bison was large enough, and a five- or six-hundred-kilogram bison provided enough food for the entire lion herd to eat. Lions are social animals, each individual's food is very large, and the physical strength consumed by each hunt is also very large, which means that the lions must choose a large enough prey to maximize the hunting efficiency, while the bison is just right.
Second, lions have the ability to hunt a single bison. In fact, no matter how powerful the lion is, it does not dare to easily provoke the bison herd, I believe that many friends have seen the picture of the great migration of the bison on TV, thousands of bison running in the same direction, any animal that stands in the way will be trampled into meat paste.
Therefore, the lion herd will generally only choose the single bison to start, they first tentatively chase the bison herd, and the bison simple lion herd will naturally escape. In the process of escaping, there will be some single bison, these lonely people are often old, weak, sick and disabled, and the lions will concentrate on rounding up the single bison.
Under normal circumstances, 3 to 5 female lions will soon exhaust the physical strength of the bison, at this time the lion finds the right time, jumps on the body of the bison to cause fatal damage to it, and then the lions can enjoy hundreds of kilograms of bison!
Returning to the topic of this discussion itself, why do sometimes when lions attack bison, the bison does not respond? I believe that friends who see here will feel that this article is inconsistent, in fact, this problem itself has problems.
It is impossible for any animal to be indifferent in the face of natural enemies, let alone unresponsive, and it is understandable that the first reaction of bison in the face of lions must be to fight and resist. But why would anyone ask the question that the bison didn't respond? There are several main reasons:
1. Generalization
In animal-like TELEVISION shows about the African savannah, the fights between lions and bison are unavoidable anyway, because bison are the prey of lions, and lions hunt bison around.
As we mentioned more than once before, when the lions hunt bison, the bison will certainly resist desperately, but sometimes the bison has been besieged by the lions and is exhausted, and when the lion attacks the bison again, the bison is powerless.
Some viewers saw such a picture and felt that a living bison was besieged by a lion and was indifferent, so there was a view that the bison did not react at all, which was obviously based on partial generalization and out of context.
2. The bison is powerless to resist
The main reason why the bison did not respond was actually their inability to resist, the fear of facing the lions, coupled with the physical exertion during the escape, the female lion's bison had been forced to "give up resistance", so the bison did not respond was actually powerless to resist.
3. The bison has been injured
When chasing a single bison, the lions will occasionally find the opportunity to jump on the back of the bison and inflict damage on the bison with their claws or teeth, and if the bison is not thrown down, the lion will generally get off the bull's back and look for the next opportunity to attack.
Throughout the hunt, the bison is not only exhausted physically, but may also be greatly injured by the lion, at this time the bison is in excruciating pain, and cannot move after being surrounded by the lions.
The relationship between lions and bison, the relationship between the upper and lower levels of the food chain, the bison provide enough food for the lion, and the lion herd helps the bison to eliminate the old, weak, sick and disabled, this is the law of nature.
As for the view that "the bison did not respond to the attack of the lion", it is actually inaccurate, and the single bison has already been "chased a few streets" by the lions before giving up resistance.