Cooperative v. solitary hunting

[Lars_Bergquist@public.se (Lars Bergquist)]

a) cooperative hunting in birds: there are good arguments against it. Very few
predatory birds take high altitude prey. The dinner is either running on the
ground, hiding (possibly in wooded or bushy terrain) or maneuvering two or 
three meters above ground. Raptors are not fighter pilots, they are ground
attack
pilots! The obvious countermeasure is neither fast flight nor evasion but
dodging
- i.e. very tight maneuvering, using what obstacles may be available to hamper
the attack. Think of a sparrow-hawk pursuing a great tit in the bushes. "Help"
from
other raptors would be most unwelcome - they would just be in the way. So
solitary hunting is more efficient. The only time we see raptors together is
when
they are scavenging; and then they do not cooperate - they compete!

b) solitary-hunting mammals: I'd like to add a couple of example of
fairly-large
solitary carnivores from my part of the world - the wolverine (the world's
largest mustelid) and the lynx, a felid (a large bobcat). The wolverine is a
run-
and-bite hunter (or rather a run-until-they-drop one; they are good at running

for hours on top of snow that even a reindeer will sink through). The lynx is
a jump-
and-bite hunter, or to be precise, a jump-and-surgery expert: she jumps on the
back of a small deer, usually a roe deer, and kills it instantly by piercing
the
brain case with the canine teeth. This is of course a very demanding method,
and
one that poor old T-rex certainly was incapable of! His teeth seem to be made
for tearing, not for stabbing. Not to speak of his brains ...

Best regards,
lars_bergquist@public.se
(lexicographer - a harmless drudge, to quote Dr. Johnson, so bear with me.)

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