Even if we know the difficulty of survival of animals in the African savannah, a little attention will become the meal on the plate of other animals, but it is still difficult for people to have a good impression of the spotted hyena, on the one hand, because of the blood and cruelty of the spotted hyena; on the other hand, the spotted hyena is more sinister and cunning, and the extraction method adopted during hunting is disdainful. So, why do spotted hyenas, which are not weak in combat, like to "dig out their anus"?
Get to know the spotted hyena
In the African savannah, almost all the dominant cats in each territory, such as lions, tigers, leopards, etc., these are the highest level hunters in the African savannah, for many herbivores, almost the "natural enemy pressure" on the food chain, which is reflected in the fact that many weak animals once they meet big cats, even run away or struggle directly give up.
The status of dogs in the grassland can be said to be the second, but most of the canines are almost in a social way, whether it is living or hunting, they are based on the "group" as a unit, the most typical of which is the wolf pack. Dogs are also known to belong to the canid family, the grey wolf of the ancestor of dogs. Although the spotted hyena also has the word "dog" in its name, it does not belong to the canine family, but belongs to the hyena family, and the feline belongs to the "distant relatives". Hyena subjects include spotted hyenas, brown hyenas, hyenas, etc., and spotted hyenas are the largest and most powerful of them.
Spotted hyenas are between 95-165 cm long and weigh up to 40-85 kg, it is worth mentioning that female spotted hyenas have a stronger genetic advantage than males, on the one hand, in terms of body size, female spotted hyenas are generally larger than males by about 30%; on the other hand, it is also reflected in combat, female spotted hyenas are stronger than males in terms of endurance and aggression in both long-distance running.
Therefore, in a group of 5-90 spotted hyenas, the leaders are almost all females, and only a very small number of spotted hyena populations are males. The rank of the spotted hyena is very strict, the first place is the "spotted hyena queen", the second place is the queen's offspring, the third place is the female spotted hyena, and the last place is the male spotted hyena. Perhaps because of the strict hierarchy and the order of eating, only bones are often left when the male hyena is ranked. It is also in this situation that the spotted hyena has evolved another stunt, that is, its canine teeth have evolved a sharper and stronger bite force, which can not only bite the bone bones and suck the bone marrow inside as a filling. This ability is unique among mammals.
Spotted hyenas are omnivores, not only through hunting or snatching and other ways to obtain fresh food; at the same time, in the lack of food to survive, spotted hyenas also eat carrion on the grassland, which is also unique among mammals. But in fact, most of the food of the spotted hyena is obtained through hunting or snatching, which is fresh food.
Alternative hunting masters
When it comes to hunting, the success rate of spotted hyena hunting is much higher than that of the "first overlord of the prairie" lion, which can reach 30%. On the one hand, because the spotted hyena can run for a long distance, running for fifty or sixty kilometers continuously is not a problem, in this mode can usually tire the prey half to death, and the feline is the famous "sprint champion", the strength lies in the running speed in a short period of time, the running speed of the cheetah can reach 113 km / h, and the maximum speed of the mainland subway is only 80 km / h, which shows the running speed of the cheetah, but the cheetah usually runs 500-800 meters and needs to stop. If you run at high speed for a long time, the cheetah will overheat and die. Spotted hyenas, on the other hand, can not only run long distances to drag down their prey, but also have strong explosive power.
On the other hand, due to the amazing bite force of spotted hyenas, don't forget that they can crush animal bones and eat bone marrow. So, why do spotted hyenas, which are so good at running or biting, still like to "dig up the anus" when attacking their prey?
In fact, this is related to the shortcomings of the spotted hyena, which causes them to have to take this extraction method that feels disgraceful. Because the front legs of the spotted hyena are longer than the back legs, running up is like a jump and a jump, which directly leads to the poor jumping ability of the spotted hyena, unable to jump directly to the back of the prey to defeat the enemy, and even more unable to directly confront the prey and bite the throat. Coupled with the fact that hyenas are usually rounded up by larger animals, the size of spotted hyenas is not dominant. But the most vulnerable part of the body of many large animals, except for the throat, is the anus. Spotted hyenas can't jump and bite their throats, and spotted hyenas are just tall enough to bite the anus of their prey because of the extraction method.
A natural enemy of spotted hyenas
When the prey is surrounded by spotted hyenas and stopped, it is generally exhausted and takes a short rest, but as soon as it stops, the spotted hyenas will start group combat, almost surrounded by clusters, some pretend to interfere with the attention of the prey in front, and some also seize the opportunity behind the back to carry out the extraction dafa.
Once the animal is "pulled out of the anus", it will become motionless, and then tie its hands. It's not that the prey doesn't want to run, it's that they don't dare to run. Because the anus is connected to the intestines, a hard run is likely to cause the intestines and even internal organs to fall out; the prey does not even dare to break free when the spotted hyena "pulls out the anus", which is also the reason, once the force will only speed up the internal organs are torn out, it also means faster death.
It is also with this extraction method that spotted hyenas even dare to take food from the mouths of lions in the African savannah. However, this is usually a few dozen spotted hyenas dealing with a single female lion. The female lion is usually afraid of being injured under the extraction method of the spotted hyena, and generally has to choose to give up food. Even, sometimes when encountering tigers, leopards and other large and brave and warlike big cats, they dare to fight, after all, the big guys of the cat family are almost all solitary animals, and hunting is often carried out alone.
Spotted hyenas are notorious in the African savannah, especially the extraction method is more controversial, feeling that it is too bloody, and the means are a bit inferior. But as far as the survival choices of the animal kingdom are concerned, almost all the killing between animals in the savannah is for the sake of survival, whether it is the spotted hyena's more victory than less bullying, or its extraction method is to make itself better survive. Even from the principle of survival in the animal kingdom, this is called survival strategy, not the "despicable shamelessness" of human perspective, after all, nature has always been like this, survival of the fittest!