Is hyena meat not tasty? Why don t the carnivores of the steppe eat its meat?

Mondo Science Updated on 2024-02-22

1.Hyena meat is not delicious, according to relevant studies, hyena meat is a kind of sour and smelly meat, this is because they like to hunt prey and eat their internal organs and intestines, and even carrion, and this is full of a large number of bacteria and secretions, over time, it will naturally emit a foul smell, in addition, hyena is also a scavenger, it will secrete a kind of hyena butter in its body, this substance is very smelly, it even uses this substance to mark the territory, which lasts for a month.

2.From the point of view of the food chain, hyenas belong to the secondary consumers in the ecosystem, and animals such as bison and wildebeest belong to the primary consumers, mainly feeding on plants, and the toxins and harmful substances in plants can be accumulated into the consumer through food ingestion. Obviously, if other carnivores prey on hyenas, they will inevitably accumulate more harmful substances in their bodies than they do on other herbivores.

3.According to records, the bite force of adult spotted hyenas reaches about 450 kilograms, which can easily bite off a cow bone, while the bite force of African lions is only about 360 kilograms, once the lion is bitten, it is extremely vulnerable to serious injury, and once the wild animal is injured, it is extremely vulnerable to other predators. This is also the reason why other predators do not easily provoke hyenas.

4.From the point of view of food selection, generally speaking, when the lion can not catch the prey for a while, and is in urgent need of energy replenishment, it will also choose to hunt hyenas to eat meat, of course, this is just a last resort, generally lions will only give preference to the kind of large herbivores, such as wildebeest, zebra and bison, etc., after all, their meat quality is far better than that of hyenas, will not be sour and smelly, and there is a situation, that is, when the hyena enters the territory of the lion, The lion will also expel or kill it, but at this time the lion will not eat its flesh, but will only throw it aside.

5.The last point is the natural predator, the hyena is known as the second brother of the African savannah, except for the lion, the king of the grassland, there are few natural predators, and they go out to forage for food or fight in groups, so few other carnivores can hunt it and retreat with their whole body, let alone eat its meat.

6.All in all, hyena meat is really not tasty, and other carnivores will not choose to prey on it because of this sour and smelly meat, and the smell it exudes alone is enough to make many meat eaters lose their appetite for food.

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