As individuals, wolves are not the most powerful carnivores, but they have the most extensive living space among carnivores. Wolves were once widely distributed in the northern hemisphere, including Eurasia and North America, and they lived in grasslands, forests, deserts, and even in the mountains.
Wolves are so powerful because of swarm collaboration, where members work together to defend against enemies, co-breed cubs, and divide their work to hunt, and the collective intelligence of wolves greatly improves their survivability.
But in the Naliboki forest of Belarus, there lives a cat that is much smaller than a wolf, and they often act alone, but they specialize in hunting wolf cubs and making the wolves living in the same forest feel frightened, which is the lynx known as the big cat.
In 1997, zoologists in Belarus launched a research project on lynx to observe the long-term struggle between Eurasian lynx and wolves. The final result shows:
So the question is, what kind of divine is the lynx that can kill the wolves? Why do lynx slaughter wolf packs of cubs? Let's talk about this topic.
1. The "wolf slaughtering machine" lynx kills four parties and kills the wolves until the wolves cut off their children and grandchildren
From 1997 to 2017, Belarusian zoologists tracked lynx and wolves in the Naliboki forest for two decades, studying the long-term struggle between the two.
The final data showed that the density of lynx in the forest was inversely correlated with the survival rate of wolf pups, and the greater the density of lynx, the lower the survival rate of young wolves within half a year of age. The specific data are as follows:
Between 1999 and 2011, the density of lynx in the Naliboki forest was about 0.45 per 100 square kilometers, corresponding to a survival rate of 70% for young wolves within half a year;
Between 2012 and 2015, the density of lynx rose to about 1.5 per 100 square kilometers, and the survival rate of young wolves fell to 37%."
By 2016 and 2017, the density of lynx had increased significantly, reaching 2 to 5 per 100 square kilometers, while the survival rate of young wolves within half a year had dropped to 4%, and almost no young wolves could survive to adulthood.
The data alone is not enough to tell the story, and zoologists have documented at least 16 wolf hunts by lynx over the course of two decades. Moreover, after long-term tracking and observation of a wolf pack, it was found that the wolf pack made at least three major adjustments to its survival strategy to avoid the slaughter of young wolves by lynx and improve the survival rate of young wolves.
At first, wolves liked to lay their cubs in nests near the bushes, without any concealment, and as a result, the lynx could easily find the cubs and hunt them.
Later, more wolves began to hide their cubs in the cave and stayed at the mouth of the cave at all times, so that the lynx did not dare to attack easily. But wolf parents always have to go out hunting, catching prey to fill their stomachs, and once the wolf cubs are not guarded by their parents, the lynx takes the opportunity to kill all the wolf cubs.
Zoologists tracked a wolf pack and found that they were in the Naliboki Forest, and as soon as they gave birth to a litter of wolf cubs, the lynx patronized a litter of wolf cubs, which could not protect the wolf cubs for five consecutive years.
So the wolves were forced to move out of the forest and breed outside the forest, a strategy that did play a role in preventing lynx hunting, because lynx would not take the initiative to leave the forest, otherwise it would be difficult to survive, which we will introduce later.
The wolves that left the forest were free from the lynx hunting, but there was a new problem: there was a lack of prey outside the forest, the wolves were worried about food all day, and human hunting was a great threat to them.
After several tossing and turning, the wolves decided to return to the forest, but this time they found a way to survive: the members of the wolf pack worked together to protect the cubs.
Previously, the husband and wife of the members of the wolf pack were their own raised and cubs, which gave the lynx an opportunity. After returning to the forest again, the members of the wolf pack decided to raise the cubs together, and they brought together all the cubs of the wolf pack.
In this way, some parents go out hunting, and the remaining members can protect the cubs. Although the lynx can hunt wolf cubs, the solitary lynx does not dare to act rashly in the face of more than two adult wolves.
So where is the lynx sacred? Why can a wolf pack be killed? Does the "wolf slayer machine" live up to its name? Can the wolves really not beat the lynx? Let's move on!
2. Where is the lynx sacred? Why are wolves afraid of lynx?
The lynx is a medium-sized cat that resembles a cat, but is much larger than a cat, with an average body length of 85 to 105 cm, a tail length of 20 to 31 cm, and a weight of 20 to 30 kg.
The lynx is thick, with long limbs, soft gray-brown fur, a short tail, and a very similar appearance to a cat, but there is one place that is clearly different from the cat, that is, the tip of the lynx's ears has a small bundle of black towering tufts.
Lynx are cold-loving animals, mainly distributed in the cold regions of the northern temperate zone, even in areas south of 30 degrees north latitude, mainly living in cold alpine areas, lynx is the northernmost distribution of cats.
The lynx is affectionately known as the big cat, but it is not soft at all, but an excellent hunter in the forest, it is alert by nature, and its hearing is very developed. The lynx's ears often turn, they can hear the movement of rats tens of meters away, and it is no problem to prey on small mammals in the forest.
However, the diet of lynx can not be limited to small animals such as rodents, they can also prey on large and medium-sized mammals such as roe deer. When hunting, the lynx will look for large stones, tree roots, etc. as cover, lurking in areas where prey is often active.
When prey appears, the lynx will creep closer and let the rear launch a surprise attack, killing the prey with sharp claws and teeth. If it can't kill in one shot, the lynx rarely chases its prey, and it has to save physical strength.
As a carnivorous animal, it is natural to have a certain ability to hunt, so why would a wolf, which is also a carnivore, not only larger than a lynx, but also a social animal, be afraid of lynx? Where did the lynx's title of "wolf slayer machine" come from?
In fact, the lynx that can make wolves "smell the wind" is specifically the Eurasian lynx, and there are four animals in the genus: the Eurasian lynx, the Spanish lynx, the Canadian lynx and the short-tailed cat.
Among them, the Spanish lynx is mainly distributed in southwestern Europe and does not intersect with wolves, while the combat effectiveness of the Canadian lynx and short-tailed cats cannot be compared with wolves, and only Eurasian lynx can compete with wolves.
Eurasian lynx are comparable to gray wolves in size and speed, and wolves defeat their opponents with endurance and teamwork, and wolves can certainly defeat lynxes. But lynx have a strong climbing ability, not only can climb trees quickly, but also jump from one tree to another.
That is to say, in the densely wooded forest, the collective tactics of the wolves can not help the lynx, and the lynx will immediately go up the tree as soon as it finds danger, so that the wolves cannot do anything with the lynx.
The lynx did not dare to confront the wolves, or even to compete with an adult male wolf, but the lynx specialized in hunting the cubs of the wolves, and the lynx took advantage of the wolf's out hunting to find the wolf den to kill the cubs, which was the main reason why the wolves were afraid of the lynx.
3. Why do lynx slaughter wolf cubs?
Since the lynx can't defeat wolves, even single-handedly, why would it risk finding a wolf den and hunting wolf cubs? In fact, this is a competitive relationship between different species in nature.
Two different species living in the same area, if the ecological niches are highly overlapping, will form a competitive relationship, and two species with a competitive relationship will have the phenomenon of "competitive exclusion".
The lynx in the Naliboki forest of Belarus live in the same forest as the wolf, their diets are highly overlapping, and both have the habit of dividing territories. That is to say, lynko and wolves have a competitive relationship, and once they meet, they will spare no effort to hunt each other to reduce competitors, that is, "competition exclusion".
So it's not hard to understand why lynx hunt wolf cubs:
1, the wolf's prey and the lynx highly overlapped, the presence of wolves is bound to reduce the entire area of prey, lynx in order to ensure that they do not starve, will reduce the number of wolves as much as possible.
2, although the lynx is an excellent hunter, but in the face of adult wolves is still unable to resist, wolves hunting lynx is not uncommon, in the case of unable to compete with adult wolves, lynx can only attack the wolf cubs.
3, this competitive relationship between lynx and wolf is doomed to be eternal enemies, once the two meet, if one side can crush the other, they will not hesitate to hunt, which is the result of evolution under natural selection.
4. Conclusion
In fact, it is rare for lynx to kill wolves to cut off their children and grandchildren, the distribution range of wolves is very wide, and the living environment is also diverse, and lynx often only live in forests, because once they go out of the forest, without the protection of dense forests, it is difficult to catch prey and it is difficult to protect themselves.
So the claim that lynx crushes wolves is somewhat exaggerated, and the title of lynx "wolf slaying machine" is only because they kill wolf cubs. On the whole, the lynx does not have the strength to compete with adult wolves, and on the contrary, the wolf is one of the natural enemies of the lynx.
The reason why lynx hunt wolf cubs is also very simple, they want to reduce the number of wolves, but they can't beat adult wolves, so they can only attack the cubs.