The standard ostrich is a flightless animal, but it has a nimble run, and it is said that its legs are strong enough to break a lion's ribs with one kick?
Why don't lions prey on ostriches in the "food chain"?
Whether it is the natural world or modern human society, the food chain is crucial for all living things, and in the natural food chain, lions are the predators of predators, and the African savannah is undoubtedly their paradise.
But in this vast territory, they are not the strongest beings, they have to face countless kinds of animals, compared to rhinoceros, elephants and other behemoths, it seems that weak ostriches do not seem to be much of a threat, but in this vast savannah, lions do not seem to like to prey on them.
According to statistics, the number of ostriches in Africa is extremely large, especially in Tanzania and Kenya, where they are almost ubiquitous, but in the face of such a large number of prey, lions do not seem to be interested.
I don't want to give up to fill my stomach, and I don't want to lose face
This may seem far-fetched, but it is not unreasonable, and no one thinks about physical injury or death at a time when people are at stake.
In fact, it is said that an ostrich can run fast and still break a lion's neck with a single kick, but in fact, if a lion is fast enough, it can pounce on an ostrich and bite it to death before it can be kicked and injured.
After all, there is no free lunch forever, and it is not that lions do not know how to hunt ostriches, but they just don't want to waste their physical strength and energy in vain, and ostriches are fast and have large bodies, so they are not easy to be pounced on by lions.
So there is no need for lions to hunt it at all, after all, they are generally able to get food from other prey.
In nature, lions are the apex predators in the food chain, but if they want to survive on the grassland, they still have to look at other factors, after all, their food chain is very long-term, as long as there are prey that are more likely to be hunted by lions in the grassland where "the world is so treacherous".
Moreover, lions have been accustomed to hunting some "prey with a high meat-to-value ratio" for a long time in the living environment, so the more muscular the prey, the more lazy the lion is to hunt, and the more cunning the prey, the more excited the lion is.
Therefore, as the "nut meat" of the African savannah, it is natural that few lions are "willing" to hunt it.
The author believes that both the traditional food chain and the modern quality chain have the meaning of existence, and neither animals nor humans should break or ignore their existence at will.
From the perspective of the food chain, the reason why lions do not hunt ostriches is very complex, it is not only related to the temperament of the lions themselves, but also related to the characteristics of the ostriches themselves, such as their speed, muscle mass, etc., and also related to the environment in which they live.
To a certain extent, these also reflect the laws of survival in nature.