Most animals hunt in hand-to-hand combat, and for carnivores, they often rely on their claws and fangs to fight their prey, but this method also has drawbacks, because close attacks have the possibility of being counter-killed, even if they are top beasts such as lions and tigers.
From this point of view, if we evolve the ability to attack from a distance, we can shoot targets from a distance and covertly like the shooters in our games, which is quite advantageous for animals, at least to reduce the risk of injury, and also improve the success rate of hunting. So why is this predator-friendly hunting not reflected in most animals? Let's talk about this interesting question.
What are the "long-range shooters" in the animal kingdom?
Although there are fewer "players" in the animal kingdom for long-range attacks, but it is not nothing, the most representative is humans, human beings as omnivorous animals, in the early stage of evolution, human ancestors did not have today's smart brains, living a life of wool and drinking blood, in order to obtain meat, human ancestors in the process of hunting, gradually discovered the benefits of using tools, from the early throwing stones, to wooden or stone sharps, human beings rely on long-range attacks to reduce the probability of their injuries, but also improve the success rate of hunting.
However, humans are not alone in the evolution of ranged attacks, so let's take a look at the four types of "ranged shooters":
The first type: electric eel. In nature, there are not many animals that can discharge, among which electric eels, electric catfish are the most representative, in the electric eel, the strongest is undoubtedly the voltaic electric eel (Electrophorus voltai), which can release a maximum voltage of 860V, which can be called a high-voltage line in the water.
The reason why electric eels can discharge is because they have evolved a large number of electric discharges in the body after a long period of evolution, when discharging, its head and tail are positive and negative electrodes, such a circuit is formed, in order to prevent electrical damage to themselves, electric eels have also evolved a layer of insulating fat layer, when discharging, water is a natural conductor, radiating electricity to the surroundings, just like some electric fish, can instantly corona or even electrocute the fish, but also can repel or even kill crocodiles, a large predator.
The second type: shooting fish. In "The Condor Heroes", Qiu Qianqi practiced hard to spit out the jujube core and practiced the "jujube core nail" magic skill, even if the tendons of his hands and feet were broken, it can still make many martial arts masters jealous. And among the fish, there is also such a master, it is the fish under the family of perch shotfish.
As the name suggests, the water shoot fish is a fish that will spray water columns, most of them are insectivorous fish, and especially like to eat flying insects, but fish live in water, unless the flying insects accidentally fall on the water surface, otherwise the fish want to eat flying insects is difficult, so the shooting fish has evolved a special oral system, which allows them to shoot down insects on plants up to 2 meters above the water surface.
The tongue of most fish is relatively short and inflexible, but the tongue of the fish can be pressed against the top of the mouth, and the groove at the top of the mouth and the tongue form a structure similar to a pipe, when the mouth watery gill cover is quickly closed, the water in the mouth will shoot out of the water surface at high speed through the pipe structure under pressure, and the water shooting fish also has a set of visual correction system, which can correct the refraction angle between air and water, so as to shoot down the insects on the water surface plants almost without missing a bullet.
Finally, research has shown that the ability to shoot fish is not innate, but acquired.
The third type: drum shrimp. Commonly known as pistol shrimp, the drum shrimp is a crustacean that lives on the bottom of the shallow tropical sea, with a pair of large chelae that vary significantly in size, and its largest chela can reach half the body length. Pistol shrimp are carnivorous animals, they usually feed on small fish, small shrimp and small crabs, but they do not hunt each other with large claws.
Rather, when hunting, the large chela will be closed at high speed, and the faster closing speed will form a stream of water at the end of the chela with a speed of up to 100 kilometers per hour to shoot at the prey, and under the strong impact, the prey will most likely be killed directly. At the same time, because the water flow speed is too fast, it will start cavitation erosion, forming a very small bubble, as the pressure tends to normal, the bubble bursts, and it will make a large crackling and popping sound, which is where the name of the drum shrimp comes from.
Fourth: Shoot venomous cobras. Although this is not a means of hunting for venomous cobras, but it is a very effective means of defense, once they encounter a strong enemy, they will spray snake venom out, once it touches the eyes of the animal, it will cause a temporary blindness, so as to give themselves a chance to escape.
It can be seen that in the animal kingdom, long-range attacking animals still exist, but they account for a relatively small proportion of the entire animal kingdom, and most animals are still "close combat".
Why haven't most animals evolved the ability to attack from a distance?
Most of the animals are close combat, in fact, they are also forced to be helpless, why do you say that? Let's talk about the reasons from three aspects:
First: the flexibility of the limbs. Most primates actually attack from a distance, such as chimpanzees will use stones to repel incoming leopards from high places, this is because evolutionarily, primates are very flexible in their limbs, and throwing things at a distance requires a combination of strength and dexterity, and most animals, their limbs are relatively stiff, and it is difficult to complete this seemingly simple throwing action.
Second: the disadvantages of long-range attacks. Through our introduction to some animals with long-range attack ability, we found that except for electric eels, the long-range attack power of other animals is extremely limited, they are usually in water, and can only shoot some relatively small animals.
The prey of most predators on land is usually relatively large, which makes it difficult for animals to shoot their prey through long-range attacks without inventing and polishing weapons.
Third: too wasteful. A long-range attacker like a venomous cobra involves a waste of resources, because most of the venom is actually protein, which is the essence of the animal, if it is hunting, the venom is injected into the prey, and the venom will eat the prey whole, and it will not be wasted at all, but if it is used to repel the opponent, for most animals, it is better to put the evolution on running speed and stronger aggression more cost-effective.
summary
Simply looking at the evolutionary characteristics of any kind of animal seems to be beneficial to all animals, just like the ability of long-range attack, but in fact, long-range attack in the animal kingdom is more harmful than beneficial for most animals, for example, it has strong limitations for most terrestrial animals, and if you want to take things from the outside world as a tool, you have to have super flexible limbs, and with the help of your own "materials" involves a waste of resources, therefore, it is more efficient to pounce directly on melee combat in the animal kingdom.