Hyenas love to dig out their ans and gnaw their prey alive, why are they so cruel?

Mondo Science Updated on 2024-02-02

Different animals have their own unique hunting methods, and their hunting methods are the most suitable for them. Large-sized predators such as lions and tigers can naturally exclude the influence of size to a certain extent, and can single-handedly kill herbivores larger than themselves. Carnivores are not all as large as lions and tigers, and hyenas that are slightly larger than dogs are not.

Therefore, in the process of evolution, hyenas have mastered a more efficient and cruel way to obtain food, they do not mind eating rotten food, they will unite and cooperate to snatch food from the mouths of fierce beasts, and they will also brutally take out their anuses, as big as bison and rhinoceros, and they will instantly sit on the ground when they are like this, and then they will be eaten by hyenas, and finally the hyenas will attack them in groups and snatch food from the mouths of lions. In order to survive, hyenas become very cruel.

There are several subspecies of hyenas that differ slightly in size and coat color, but they have a similar temperament, which is a skill they rely on to survive. Hyenas are more widely distributed than lions and tigers because of their relatively efficient way of obtaining energy, and they can be found in some desert areas of the African continent and Western Asia, although the number of human activities has decreased, but there is no risk of extinction.

I often see the animal world, I know that the mammals in the beast have flexible forelimbs and strong bite force, and the flexibility of the upper limbs can make the beast support the hind limbs when chasing the prey, and the forelimbs stretch to pounce on the prey instantly; The strong bite force makes the beast bite through the prey's ** and muscle tissue, and then hold the prey with its claws, and hang it on the prey's body with its teeth, so that sooner or later the prey's physical strength will be exhausted, if it bites the neck and other important parts, the prey will quickly lose its combat effectiveness due to difficulty breathing and massive blood loss.

In terms of the flexibility of the forelimbs, although the hyena is not as flexible as the lion, tiger and bear, they can still hunt with their flexible forelimbs, and the bite force of the hyena is quite good, their size is not large, but because of the strong bite force, the tissues and organs of the prey can be cut off instantly, which can also make the prey lose the ability to resist quickly. At the same time, they will gnaw the meat from their prey alive and then devour it on the spot.

This practice makes hyena food more widely available and has more ways to obtain it. The African savannah is dominated by grasses and shrubs, and this environment is very conducive to the running of organisms, because the shrubs are sparse and the grass is relatively soft, so there are many species in Africa that run quickly; The vegetation in Africa is lush, which leads to many species in the African grassland, and the competition for survival of organisms makes it easier for large-sized animals to survive, so there are many large-sized herbivores in Africa, such as elephants, giraffes, rhinoceros, hippos, etc.

Hyenas are not like lions and tigers, they face bison, rhinoceros and other species, the difference in individual strength is too large, if a single hyena challenges the bison, it is easy to be trampled to death, and their strength, the size of the mouth is also difficult to quickly cut the throat of large herbivores. This makes it difficult for hyenas to prey, so they learn to eat scavenging, rotting food and normal meat are distinguished by smell, character, but can also provide sufficient nutrition for organisms, hyenas exercise a strong stomach in the process of scavenging, can scaveng without suffering from pathogenic microorganisms.

However, there are many scavenging animals on the grassland, not to mention that there are many microorganisms that can decompose the remains of living beings, and it is difficult to maintain a large population like hyenas by scavenging alone, and the size of the hyena itself is relatively large, so they have learned to take food from the mouths of fierce beasts. When the beast was still tired from catching its prey, the hyenas swarmed up, making it difficult for the lions to cope with the escape of the prey, so the hyenas took this opportunity to mix in food.

And the hyenas also had to hunt alone. As mentioned earlier, African animals either run fast or are big, and hyenas don't run fast and are not big enough, so hyenas have another move. Although herbivores have strong muscles, they are very weak in the abdomen, **, etc., and the hyena's strong bite force is very convenient to deal with these structures, and you can bite down the herbivore's ** in one bite, and this way makes the herbivores injured, and they will quickly fall down due to pain stress or excessive blood loss.

Anal digging is just a form, hyenas will also gnaw alive, when chasing prey, directly gnaw a piece of meat from the animal and swallow it on the spot, bite off a piece of meat and replenish the energy wasted by hunting, and earn two bites. Herbivores that survive severe injuries and even if they escape are attacked by pathogenic microorganisms in Africa's warmer climates, they die more quickly, and when they die, they decay and become food for hyenas.

Hyenas are full of wisdom in their way of survival, they are not superior in size and speed, but they can rely on a variety of food access methods to ensure their energy needs, and this ability makes hyenas the second brother of Africa, and many animals will avoid them when they encounter them. The hyena population is dominated by females, and generally only the female leader of the hyena group can give birth, and other females need her consent to give birth.

For hyenas, what is the concept of cruelty, we humans feel cruel is actually because of the development of civilization, human beings no longer need to hunt so frequently and a lot after settling down, many people have not even seen the killing of chickens, but we have abundant products. But as for hyenas, they can only solve the problem of food by brute force or cunning scavenging, even if they gnaw meat alive from their prey and devour it, it is only to obtain energy, which is completely different from the cruelty of humans.

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