RE: Follow-up on Lions of Savuti

[Stanley Friesen <sarima@ix.netcom.com>]

At 02:01 PM 2/9/99 -0800, Stewart, Dwight wrote:
>          No, I don't.  With modern prey/predator relationships (when the
>prey animal is many X's larger than the predator)
>       it is the very young, the very old, the sick, trapped, or injured
>who are selected.  It's simply not in the best interest
>       of a predator to risk serious injury attempting to take down an
>enormous prey animal.  Now, I'm NOT saying that predators never act out of
>desperation, but these don't represent their normal hunting patterns. 

Except when privation is seasonally common.  Wolves in the far north
often attack musk ox herds, at great individual risk. But prey is extremely
hard to come by during northern winters, and the wolves there have a
high winter mortality rate anyhow.  Thus risking injury attacking musk ox
is often the lesser risk.

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May the peace of God be with you.         sarima@ix.netcom.com