When two tigers fight, why does one side lie on the ground and the other side stops attacking?

Mondo Social Updated on 2024-01-19

As the saying goes, "one mountain does not allow two tigers", this is a true portrayal of the tiger's territorial consciousness, indeed, in addition to allowing the female tiger to coincide with the edge of his territory, other male tigers are categorically not want to touch. When the tigers meet, they will tentatively attack each other with their front paws before breaking out into a big fight.

However, there is a strange phenomenon that when a tiger is lying on the ground, the other will stop attacking. It stands to reason that it should take advantage of his illness to kill him, so why would it stop?Let's talk about this interesting question.

As a huge cat, the tiger occupies a unique position in the animal kingdom with its strong combat power and unique predation strategy. They possess a burly size, powerful explosiveness, and sharp claws and teeth, which allow them to individually capture prey much larger than themselves, which is a fairly rare phenomenon in the animal kingdom.

While many animals have the ability to prey on prey larger than their size, such as lions and wolves, these animals are usually social and rely on numerical superiority to hunt. Tigers, however, are true loners who must rely on their own strength to survive at all times.

The tiger's predatory strategy is a typical "chase-ambush" tactic. They have a very keen sense of smell and are able to track the location of their prey based on its scent. Before attacking, the tiger crouches down and approaches its prey slowly but steadily.

Once in range, the tiger will attack suddenly, and its speed can increase to more than 60 kilometers per hour in a matter of seconds, pounce on its prey with its powerful jumping ability, and quickly lock its throat after pounce on it. This series of movements is full of power and impact, making people fully feel the strength of the tiger. However, this may be reminiscent of the ancient story of Wu Song fighting the tiger, but in reality, it may just be a joke.

Tigers are very territorial. They spend most of their time on solitude, except for a brief period with their partner during the breeding season. At the same time, they do not allow any other of their kind to enter their territory.

Even female tigers can only move on the edge of the male tiger's territory, and the male tiger does not even want to step on the edge, and the tiger's cubs will survive independently after 2-3 years of age, and they will choose a territory away from the parents' habitat, so there will be almost no offspring challenging the "parents". And the tigers rarely have a life-and-death fight, and once one of them lies on the ground, the fight is usually over.

There are usually two sayings for felines lying on the ground: one is "lying on the ground", which is the last desperate struggle of the weaker side when the difference in strength between the two sides is huge, because lying on the ground can use its claws to defend its vital parts, but often this action is futile;Another theory is that when the difference in strength between the two sides is not very large, one side has an advantage in the battle, and the other side makes a move in order not to get hurt.

For tigers, they usually stop attacking when they see each other lying on the ground, rather than killing them all for three main reasons:

First, the tiger's goal is not to kill the other side

Unlike preying on other prey, when two tigers clash, their primary goal is not to kill each other directly. Tigers are territorial-minded creatures that may fight for territory, but as long as one of them gives in and is willing to give up territory, the victor will usually not kill the loser.

Second, killing each other is not in line with the principle of continuity of the tiger race

Imagine if two tigers met with the goal of killing each other, which would lead to a gradual reduction in the entire tiger population, which in turn would threaten the survival of the tiger species. Many behaviors have been deeply engraved in the tiger's genes, and their actions are all about ensuring the survival and continuation of the entire species.

Third, the risk of a lethal attack is too great

When two tigers meet, one of them may be relatively weak, but even a strong tiger cannot easily defeat the opponent. Tigers are often quick to decide who is stronger, and after a few rounds of fighting, they are able to determine who is stronger, while the weaker ones usually leave on their own. Therefore, launching a deadly attack is not only unnecessary but also too risky for the tiger.

The purpose of tiger fights is actually very simple, either to fight for a mate, or to protect the territory, no matter what the reason is not related to eating, in this case, their ultimate purpose is to let one party withdraw, not you live or die, after all, the fight between the same kind and the same sex, everyone has the possibility of killing each other, and even if one party wins, if you have to kill the other party, you will also be injured, and in the end, the bamboo basket will be empty.

The tiger's action of lying on the ground is actually to expose its belly, neck and other parts like a posture of the other party begging for mercy, at this time the other party will stop attacking, and then the defeated party will leave in a gloomy manner. List of high-quality authors

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