The photo above shows a tiger killing a leopard. This photo may be one of the most powerful evidences of mutual predation between different cats. no the same.
From the coil tied around the tiger’s neck, it is not difficult to find that this tiger is not completely wild. In fact, this incident happened in a nature reserve in India. This picture has a follow-up story, and the administrator of the reserve announced the news , the tiger didn’t eat the leopard, it just killed it and dragged it into the jungle.
This photo is different (and very famous), a leopard hunted a caracal, it really did eat the feline prey, the story of this photo is in a nature reserve in Botswana, Africa happened within.
At that time, the female leopard was strolling with her cubs when the unfortunate caracal escaped and the leopard hunted it down without hesitation.
This is the last photo of a leopard hunting a caracal
It dragged the lynx to the tree, which is a typical behavior of leopards to indicate that this is food. As long as it drags it to the tree with great effort, there is no reason not to eat it.
Among different cats, big cats eat kittens do exist, but the probability of happening in a natural state is low.
The reason is also very simple, because cats are top predators, it is relatively more dangerous to prey on these animals, and there is not much energy available-carnivores are not large in size.
In the wild, if injured, especially if bitten, it is likely to mean death, so it is more correct to not provoke top predators.
But if there is a disparity in their own strengths—like leopards and caracal cats, leopards don’t care so much. In their eyes, they only care about food and whether it is safe.
Those with almost the same strength will occasionally prey or hunt – just like the story of the tiger and leopard mentioned above, this situation is generally due to two reasons, either because of territorial conflicts or because of food shortages.
Now due to human activities, the habitats of many wild animals have been destroyed, and the living space has been severely squeezed. There are relatively more situations of predation among different top predators. Tigers are often photographed killing crocodiles, pythons, and The case of other cats.
In addition to between different cat species, predation behavior can also occur in the same cat species, which has been recorded many times in lions.
After a male lion occupies a lion pride, the first thing it does is to kill the original cubs in the lion pride, so that the female lion will enter estrus again.
However, in order to protect their cubs (the descendants of the last lion king), some female lions will fight against the cub killing behavior of male lions, and sometimes male lions will kill and eat female lions.
In addition, the behavior of killing young is sometimes directly eaten, and eating young offspring can also happen to other cats, but lions are definitely the furthest in eating their own kind (except for those cold-blooded animals) .
In addition to eating lionesses and cubs, when they invade a lion pride, they may even kill and eat the original lion king.
Generally speaking, there is no reason for felines not to eat each other’s meat. There is no reason not to eat when they are hungry, but why doesn’t the tiger we mentioned at the beginning eat leopards?
In related reports, I have seen some experts give explanations. To sum up, leopard meat is not good for tigers, and the food itself for tigers in the reserve is also very sufficient.
Why do you say that leopard meat is not tasty? This is because species at the top of the food chain accumulate more toxic elements or other difficult-to-breakdown compounds.
This is called bioaccumulation. When organisms ingest some pollution, it will accumulate in the body. These pollution will flow along the food chain and eventually accumulate at the top of the food chain, because the number of predators at the top is often smaller. Therefore, each individual receives more pollution.
Bioaccumulation of DDT
This kind of bio-enrichment may also produce a nasty taste to top predators like us. The tiger may have killed the leopard out of the protection of resources in its territory, but it has more food sources, naturally It is also more picky eaters, and the unpalatable meat is discarded directly.
