When we say bison here, we mean the African wild buffalo, which appears very well in the African savannah-related animal column, but it appears as prey.
The bison are huge, strong, and have hard horns, coupled with strong hooves, making it a difficult guy to catch.
In fact, most predators are injured to a greater or lesser extent when they prey on bison, and some are even killed by bison, such as lions may be pierced through the belly by horns.
But even so, bison are also the favorite of large and medium-sized carnivores, such as lions, spotted hyenas, and even African wild dogs weighing only 30 kilograms, which prey on bison.
So the question is, bison are so fierce, why do predators dare to prey? What would happen if the bison united and resisted together? Let's talk about this topic.
1. About bison
African wild buffalo is an animal of the genus Even-hoofed family, Bovidae, African wild buffalo, there are 5 subspecies, they are large, up to 1.7 meters tall and up to 900 kilograms in weight. The bison are strong, with a broad chest, thick limbs, and a long horned head, which is very aggressive.
Since they are buffaloes, of course, they cannot do without water sources, and they need to drink water every day, so they mainly inhabit grasslands and bush areas close to water sources. They need to avoid the hot sun during the day, often rest in the shade or soak in water to cool down, and only come out to graze in the early morning or evening, which is a nocturnal animal.
Bison are irritable and cannot be domesticated, especially lactating cows, which will react violently when irritated at the slightest. Although they are vegan mammals, they are particularly aggressive and aggressive, and bison, along with African elephants, African lions, rhinos and leopards, are known as the "African Five", representing the five most difficult animals to capture on the African savannah.
As far as individuals are concerned, the fighting power of bison is already very strong, with their size and combat effectiveness, enough to scare off most predators, and they often appear in the form of groups, belonging to social animals, which further enhances their survival and combat ability, making carnivores fearful.
The strongest bull in the herd is the leader, enjoys the right to feed on high-quality pasture, and also takes on the responsibility of organizing family members to jointly ward off enemies. When the cattle are attacked by predators, the herd will stand in a row or in a circle, and the horns will be aligned with the outside, like an iron wall and copper wall, to protect the young.
In some animal documentaries, you can often see a group of lions attacking around bison, but even so, lions have a certain chance of being hit or kicked by bison, and even die, and the fighting power of bison is really strong!
2. Why do carnivores dare to prey on bison?
Bison are so fierce that they weigh 3~4 times heavier than lions, but why do many predators still like to prey on bison? For example, lions, spotted hyenas and even African wild dogs will put bison on their recipes. There are several main reasons for this:
1. The size of bison is large enough
Bison are large, powerful, and have strong defensive and even offensive capabilities, but large size often means large meat production, and capturing a bison can obtain a large amount of food.
In the African savannah, most of the top predators live in groups, whether it is the "African brother" lion, the "African second brother" spotted hyena, or the "African brother" wild dog, all of which are social animals. With a large group of members, the demand for food is also large.
And in the open grassland, it takes no less energy to capture a small prey than it takes to capture a large prey.
As a result, these powerful predators often like to hunt large herbivores, such as bison, wildebeest and zebras, etc., bison account for 40% of the lion's diet, which shows that lions are more willing to risk hunting bison.
2. The predation strategy is clever
Lions, spotted hyenas and wild dogs, due to their different size and combat effectiveness, they adopt different strategies when hunting, and these predators can use their own advantages to hunt according to their own characteristics.
With their powerful explosive power, lions often hunt by pounce on their prey and lock their throats, they will jump on bison, grab the body of bison with sharp claws, and try to bring the bison down. Once the bison fell, the lion bites the bison throat with its sharp teeth, suffocating the bison to death.
Spotted hyenas are familiar to everyone, and their hunting method is, of course, "removal". The spotted hyena's forelimbs are longer than the hind limbs, and the hind limbs are not strong enough to jump on the prey like lions, and can only attack lower parts. But it has to be said that the means of spotted hyenas "pulling out their anus" are obviously very successful predation strategies, which makes them the "second brother of Africa" after lions.
African wild dogs are really not beasts, because their size is too small, only about 30 kilograms, about the same as a dog, such a size can not be compared with large beasts such as lions.
But wild dogs also have their own way of survival, they rely on numbers like spotted hyenas, and they are good at "pulling out the anus". When wild dogs besiege their prey, they will go crazy and detour to the rear to attack, and when the prey resists, they withdraw, and then attack again, like dog skin plaster, wave after wave of attacks on the prey until the prey is exhausted.
Whether lions, spotted hyenas, or African wild dogs, they will selectively attack when faced with large prey such as bison. When they spot a herd of bison, they find the weakest bison.
They chase out the old, weak and sick, and then concentrate on chasing down the fallen until they surround the bison, and then attack in turn, consuming the bison's physical strength.
3. Bison stand idly by
Isn't it surprising to see this title? Doesn't it mean that the bison leader will organize the herd to jointly defend against foreign enemies, how can he stand idly by? In fact, the bison herd only protects the calves, but for those left behind, the herd tends to abandon them.
Sometimes, when predators besiege the loafers and attack, the bison herd not only stops fleeing, but watches from the sidelines, but none of the bison comes forward to help.
This is actually beneficial for the bison species, the old and weak are eaten by lions, spotted hyenas or other predators, which can help the bison herd eliminate inferior genes, which gives predators the opportunity to prey on them.
3. What would happen if bison united against predators?
Let's open a brainhole, suppose that when the bison encounter a predator, every time they unite together, resist vigorously, and even attack the predator, what will happen?
First of all, it can be made clear that if a certain number of bison cooperate collectively and resist together, whether it is a lion or a spotted hyena, it is difficult to capture bison, and predators will even be killed by bison.
So from a small point of view, predators such as lions, spotted hyenas and African wild dogs, because it is too difficult to prey on bison, give up eating bison and eat other herbivores, such as wildebeests, zebras, etc., which will cause a sharp decrease in the number of other herbivores.
Without bison, the main source of food for carnivores, large numbers of predators will starve and compete more fiercely, which will cause the number of predators to plummet. The decline of carnivores and other herbivores, combined with the absence of predators to eat bison, led to a dramatic increase in bison populations.
If you look at the big picture, the unlimited growth of bison will put great pressure on the vegetation of the African savannah, which will eventually lead to the grass being gnawed clean, which in turn will affect the survival of bison.
In addition, because predators no longer prey on the old and weak and sick in the bison population, this will pass on those inferior genes to the offspring, cause disease transmission, and eventually affect the survival of the entire bison population.