Elephants are the largest herbivores on land and are distributed in two subspecies on Earth, the African elephant and the Asian elephant. Regardless of the subspecies, they are large, weighing tons and height by floor. Specifically, African elephants are 6 to 7.5 meters long, 2.3 to 4 meters tall, and generally weigh 2.7 to 5.5 tons; Asian elephants are 5 to 6 meters long, 2.1 to 3.6 meters tall, and weigh 3 to 5 tons.
In our eyes, elephants weigh heavier than an SUV car, are as tall as a story or two, stronger than the tallest hercules of humans, such a huge animal, in nature, there should be no animal that can hurt them. However, there are really 2 kinds of animals that can kill them, and these 2 animals are tigers and lions.
How do lions hunt elephants?
Lions are the second largest cats in the world, male lions weigh about 180 to 220 kg, female lions weigh about 130 to 200 kg, in terms of body size, a single lion can never shake an elephant. But lions usually live in groups, with a lion herd of about 8 to 30 members, with an average of 17 heads, and the largest group of lions on record is a lion herd in Botswana with 30 lions.
In the case of abundant prey, the lion will not attack the elephant, because the elephant is too bad to mess with, and its long nose, elephant legs and ivory will cause the lion to die and injure. But not necessarily when there is not enough food in the dry season, looking around, on the arid savannah, what else is there to eat except elephants?
Lions will select elephants based on the following points: first, the old, sick and disabled elephant or baby elephant is the priority target; second, it must be a single elephant. Lions usually attack elephants at night, because at night elephants are not as clear as they can be seen during the day, and lions are more likely to sneak up on them. Usually, male lions also participate in attacking elephants, which has a greater success rate.
As with other prey, lions gather around the elephants, several experienced lions jump on the elephant's back and bite, while other lions wait for an opportunity to move around. The lion's canine teeth are not enough to bite the elephant's neck, and can only be used to exhaust the elephant's physical strength by stalking and beating, and finally push the elephant down.
There are few examples of lions successfully capturing elephants, but Botswana's 30-headed lion herd has hunted elephants; in Zambia's South Luwanggua National Park, fourteen lions rounded up a baby elephant, and the baby elephant fought and retreated, guiding the lions to the river and finally escaping from danger. But the other baby elephant was not so lucky, this baby elephant was in a dehydrated, weak state, carrying a bunch of lions on its back, and finally tired and lying down. It can be seen that in the face of lions, elephants can save their lives by taking the right measures.
How do tigers hunt elephants?
Bengal tiger is second only to the Siberian tiger big cat, the average weight of the male tiger is 200 kg, the body length is 1.9 meters, the shoulder height is about 1 meter; the average weight of the female tiger is 130 kg, the body length is 167 cm, the shoulder height is 88 cm, in terms of body size, a single tiger can never shake the elephant, but the baby elephant can.
Many baby elephants die under the attack of tigers. In the spring of 2013, a tiger killed a 7-year-old baby elephant, and the fighting lasted for a day, and finally checked that the baby elephant may have died of excessive blood loss. In 2014, in India's Kazlanga National Park, a 28-year-old sick elephant suspected of being killed by four tigers, suspected of being a tigress and three young tigers who had grown up.
Like lions, tigers' canine teeth are not enough to deal a fatal blow to elephants, and baby elephants or sick elephants are difficult to inflict damage on agile tigers, so there is a war of attrition between tigers and elephants.
Tigers, lions and elephants usually live in peace with each other, and no one can help anyone. Tigers and lions can prey on only baby elephants and sick elephants, which do not have much impact on the entire elephant race.