Speaking of the African savannah, many people first think of the tall African elephant and the mighty African lion, these two animals are typical representatives of the carnivores and herbivores in the African savannah, and are the most powerful animals in Africa. However, in addition to them, there are some animals that also have a unique charm that makes people marvel, the African hyena is one of them, mention the name of the hyena, many people will think that it is a canine, in fact this is wrong, the hyena is not a dog, but a real feline, and lions, tigers, leopards have a relationship.
Many people are not familiar with hyenas, think that they are animals that live in distant places, their appearance is not good-looking, and they are not very likable, in fact, hyenas and we also have a certain relationship, hyenas originated in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau when they were not yet formed, the earliest appeared in the Gansu region of present-day China, the original hyenas are very tall, similar in height to cattle, known as giant hyenas. Later, as the environment changed, before the formation of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, hyenas followed their prey, the giant rhinoceros, to migrate westward, across Asia, and eventually survived on the African steppe, which has gradually evolved to this day.
In people's intuitive impressions, hyenas look ugly, fierce, and frightening, but these are illusions, hyenas have some strange stories that are less known.
First, the hyena is strong, the body strength can be called the best among the felines, one hand to pull out the stunt to shock the grassland, known as the director of the proctology department on the grassland, so that the prey is afraid.
First of all, let's understand the strength of the hyena itself, the hyena is tall, in the African savannah, its height and weight are second only to the male lion, heavier than the leopard weight, in terms of living habits, the hyena can also adapt to the situation, both can live alone, but also can live in groups. Hyenas have developed hind limb strength, heads are raised high, the field of vision is very open, compared to other predators, hyenas do not run fast, so in the face of fierce competition on the grassland and fast-running prey, how do hyenas survive?
The answer is its excellent hunting skills, hyenas run slowly, and are not good at jumping, so the common hunting technique of felines lock throat, this technology hyena is not well applied, but hyenas are very good at attacking vulnerable parts of prey, one-handed stunt makes their hunting efficiency very efficient. Taking bison as an example, hunting a bison requires the cooperation of a group of lions, and finally a powerful male lion to perform the task of locking the throat, during which the lion is also in danger of being counterattacked by the bison. For hyenas, it only takes two hyenas to successfully hunt bison, one hyena attracts the attention of the bison in front to avoid the bison from escaping, and the other hyena waits for the opportunity to bite the vulnerable part of the bison, and the rest is to wait for the bison to die on its own.
In the African savannah, animals that dare to hunt adult bison have no such strength except lions and hyenas, and hunting more powerful prey, such as rhinos and elephants, is almost exclusive to hyenas. For herbivores, the most vulnerable parts are the buttocks and legs, and the hyena's attack techniques choose exactly these two parts, so even the most powerful prey can be hunted by the hyena.
Second, the hyena with extraordinary strength sat firmly in the second chair on the grassland, but he was beaten everywhere and could not live in fear.
Hyenas with such extraordinary strength, known as the second brother of Africa, sit firmly in the second chair on the grassland, and their lives seem to be very scenic, as seen in the picture below, a group of hyenas besieging two lions, with numerical advantages and skills, the lions have to retreat.
However, this is just an illusion, hyenas bullying lions is very rare, and more often, as shown in the picture below, a male lion bites a hyena to death, lions and hyenas are in a competitive relationship, male lions in the process of patrol encountering hyenas often choose to hunt, every year to die in the lion's mouth of countless hyenas.
If it is normal for hyenas to be invincible in the face of lions, then in the face of other carnivores, hyenas should be hung, but is this really the case? In fact, although the hyena is strong and the hunting efficiency is very high, the fighting skills are very scarce, so they are bullied by other beasts, almost everywhere, and they are afraid to live forever.
Leopard is similar to the size of the hyena, but the leopard is also an excellent hunter, once a famous ancient human hunter, good at ambushing, throat locking skills are very skilled, hyenas face the leopard is often defeated more than less, sometimes people often see hyenas robbing the leopard of food, but that is in the leopard full of food, disdainful of fighting, once the leopard is serious, the price paid by the hyena is life.
It is forgivable to say that it is not hostile to the leopard, but it is unreasonable to be chased by a cheetah, the cheetah is a famous scum of war, in addition to running fast, almost no lethality, equivalent to a large cat, the mouth is very small, the canine teeth are also very short, an ordinary person can defeat the cheetah, but it is such a weak animal, sometimes it will beat the hyena.
In addition to being bullied by the same kind of feline, canines are not far behind, African wild dogs often group to bully hyenas, hyenas have more than half of the food is taken away by African wild dogs with a keen sense of smell, African wild dogs not only learn to pull out the anus, but also good at group beatings, without any tactics, and the hyenas that rush to fight are powerless.
Most hyenas face the wild dog group and choose to abandon their prey to escape, but some hyenas are not so lucky, and being besieged and bitten by the wild dog group ends up paying a high price, and the African wild dog is the second largest opponent of the hyena.
In the face of these powerful animals, hyenas suffer losses, but even some small beasts dare to challenge the status of hyenas, tiger wolves are the weakest carnivores on the grassland, but they are agile and often bite the legs of hyenas, waiting for opportunities to take away the hyena's food when they are overwhelmed.
Third, the powerful hyena, but similar in temperament to the second brother in the Tianlong Eight Parts of the Virtual Bamboo, very gentle, friendly with humans, never recorded hurting people, often seeking human comfort.
Hyenas are powerful, and if you compare the characters in the novel, then the virtual bamboo in the eight parts of the Tianlong is the most similar, they all have a strong force value, but they are docile and do not want to hurt people. Similarly, hyenas have a very peculiar habit, that is, never hurt people, in the African savannah, hyenas and local people have a very harmonious relationship, can be said to be mutually beneficial, hyenas around the tribe to find scraps of cold burning, but also played a role in expelling other beasts.
Over time, these hyenas and the locals tacit understanding, in the rapid development of tourism today, some tribes even hyenas as a tourism resources, these hyenas in the local feeding, can harmlessly take photos with tourists.
Even hyenas in the wild have never been recorded as hurtful, and in Africa, many children are not afraid of hyenas.
Hyenas are a spectacle in the African savannah, another animal, and understanding them allows them to protect them more.