On the African savanna, babo is a magical animal . Large carnivorous animals rarely prey on baboons, and even lions, as the overlord of the savannah, do not pay attention to this walking "protein".
Baboons that are not questioned
However, African wild dogs went against the trend and killed more than 50 baboons within 3 years. Even lions don’t want to provoke animals. Why do African wild dogs have such courage? What is the reason behind it?
Characteristics of African wild dogs
African wild dogs are also called variegated wolf . In the early days, the ancestors of African wild dogs were still gray wolf . During the evolutionary process, the ancestors of African wild dogs differentiated from wolves and became independent species.
To this day, African wild dogs still maintain a small amount of wolf blood. In terms of survival, African wild dogs are group animals, with about 40 dogs forming a community.
African wild dog
In the community, the strong leader is led by a team of , and the leader has the highest status and various preferential treatments.
African wild dogs have a strong sense of belonging . Dogs usually spend their lives in communities, and there are few cases of "job-hopping" between communities.
The dogs in the community have clear division of labor and help each other. When a dog is sick, the leader of will specifically arrange for his companions to take care of the sick dog . It can be said that African wild dogs are quite united and wise.
alert African wild dog
Facing the elderly, weak, sick and disabled in the group, the responsible dog will also "reverse" the food in its stomach and let these vulnerable groups eat it.
, and the communities get along very harmoniously. There are few times when there are group fights. The only contradiction is that during the ovulation period of female , , a little spark will be produced.
is worth mentioning that there is also a special nanny in the community to take care of the children. The nanny does not need to hunt with her companions. She watches the children at home every day, waiting for the food brought back by the dogs.
Special nanny
African wild dogs are about 100 cm long, even smaller than rural native dogs . In the case of one-on-one fight with baboons, baboons with fangs and sharp claws obviously have a more advantage.
The courage of African wild dogs
Esther van der Meer, a famous wild animal expert in the early 21st century, accidentally discovered a change in the recipe of African wild dogs .
In order to ensure the accuracy of the research, Esther's team specifically followed up on African wild dogs, and through various technical means, they recorded effective data of 113 predation and 94 feedings. In just three years, the wild dogs killed more than fifty baboons .
African wild dogs hunting
Among these 113 hunting times, the number of baboons hunting accounts for about 40%, while High-horned only accounts for 50%.
This data feedback surprised everyone in Esther's team. You should know that the main food of African wild dogs is high-horned . In the recipes of African wild dogs, baboons just make up the number.
That is to say, African wild dogs rarely preyed on baboons a long time ago.
The reason is that baboons are usually gentle in nature, but when they encounter danger, baboons will become quite irritable and have strong aggressive .
Usually docile baboons
In addition, baboons are social animals, and carnivorous animals that prey on baboons are often seriously injured, so no one is willing to provoke them.
The single data survey made Esther feel that it was . Because of the coincidence , he led the team to analyze the Jacobs index of African wild dogs. He was surprised to find that the results obtained by the Jacobs index were quite consistent with the previous data.
Jacobs index is mainly used to study the propensity index of carnivorous animals to prey . The index derived by Esther shows that the index value of African wild dogs for high-horned antelope is not as high as expected.
Jacobs index
On the contrary, the index value of African wild dogs against baboons obviously showed an abnormal situation where is higher than . Esther speculated that in a few years, baboons are likely to replace high-horned antelope and become the staple food of African wild dogs.
As the subsequent follow-up of African wild dogs continued, Esther's team finally discovered the reason.
seasonal factors
Esther found that his data collection for African wild dogs was viewed from the perspective of all year . As long as the data is divided into seasons, you can find out where the problem is.
The caught baboon
In the rainy season, African wild dogs tend to be high-horned antelope, while in the dry season, African wild dogs tend to be baboons.
The reason why the tendency toward high-horned antelope in the rainy season is related to the predation behavior of African wild dogs .
During the rainy season, abundant plants and excellent environmental conditions are the best choice for reproduction of high-horned antelope. is also the best time for wild dogs to prey on high-horned antelope.
Because in normal times, the fastest movement speed of the high-horned antelope can reach 00 kilometers per hour , while the fastest speed of the African wild dog is only 50 kilometers per hour.
High-horned antlers move very quickly
Even if African wild dogs are very smart and can divide the work and cooperate to cover their prey, the speed gap is too big, which makes it difficult for African wild dogs to prey successfully.
The speed of high-horned antagonist during pregnancy has greatly decreased, especially after giving birth, high-horned antagonist must also take care of their children .
This gives African wild dogs a chance, so hunting high-horned antelope during the rainy season is the most relaxing , and the food tends to naturally turn to high-horned antelope.
When the dry season comes, African wild dogs cannot hunt for high-horned antelope , and they can only focus on other species.
In the dry season, wild dogs stared at baboons
Previously, African wild dogs were usually looking for some animals such as hares, wild boars, etc., but the number of these species was scarce during the dry season, which caused African wild dogs to starve often .
With the destruction of the environment by humans, herbivores on African savannas are no longer more obvious than before, when African wild dogs lack food during the dry season.
So, African wild dogs turned their hunting gaze on baboons .
Baboons do not have a fixed ovulation period, which means they can reproduce throughout the year. For African wild dogs, is a stable food source .
Baboons hit by left and right
When facing carnivores, the first reaction of baboons was not to escape , but to show a vicious expression and stalemate with the carnivores in an attempt to maintain their dignity. As a stable prey like
, as a reserve grain for African wild dogs in the dry season, it is obviously the best choice.
At this time, some friends may ask, baboons are so aggressive and are a group animal . Once they fight, they are fighting, they are fighting a "group fight". Are African wild dogs not afraid of being injured by ?
Baboons can fight in groups
First of all, African wild dogs do not give baboons a chance to fight in groups . African wild dogs are quite smart. They know that they have no advantage in group-to-group and single-to-single situations.
Therefore, African wild dogs will lurk in the grass, be an "old six" , and wait until the baboon group is alone, or a group of three or five.
At this time, More than a dozen African wild dogs will rush up from the grass , quickly resolve the battle, and then drag the baboon's body away, and the task is done.
For this, African wild dogs are quite patient , they can lurk around for a big meal for several days.
Baboons still defeated
Secondly, during the process, it is inevitable that African wild dogs will be harmed , but these injuries are almost within the acceptable range of African wild dogs.
Finally, compared to starving to death, African wild dogs are willing to fight to the death in exchange for food. After all, preying on prey is not just for themselves. In the community, and hungry children are waiting for themselves.
Since baboons are the dry season "reserve grain" of African wild dogs , why hasn't this happened before?
The main reason is the influence of human activities. causes the animals on African wild dog recipes to reduce .
Attack on African wild dog
In nature, biological chain is linked together. Even if animals can eat and varied , only one of the foods disappear, which will definitely have an irreversible impact on the animals.
To give a common example, as an omnivore, can provide the body with many nutrients. If one day pork disappears from human society, people will increase the demand for other meats, bringing a series of social problems.
In order to survive, African wild dog had to transform into to prey on baboons. During the process, African wild dogs discovered the superiority of baboons as food, and More and more African wild dogs chose baboons for food preferences.
Baboons eventually became prey
It can be seen that how much impact human activities have on animals in nature? This is like the butterfly effect at the same time. Things that seem to be unrelated will actually have a huge impact.
If nature is not protected, the disaster will eventually fall on humans themselves.
