Re: late night thoughts: misunderstand what?

[gerarus@westnet.com.au]

>>I'm sure an unusually big pride of lions could eventually take down
>an adult 
>>elephant - but the amount of energy required to do so per
>individual, 
>>multiplied by the energy requirements to feed such a large pride,
>coupled 
>>with the huge risk, probably means it's simply not worth it. Picking
>off the 
>>occasional straggling juvenile is a safer and less risky option. 

The latest series of David Attenborough's 'Planet Earth' included
film footage of a lion pride taking down an adult elephant (not one
of the largest, but still sizable enough). It was a memorable sight -
basically one or a few lions would cling onto the elephant until
thrown off, when others would take its place while the shaken one
would rejoin the chasing pack. I got the impression from the
'making-of' piece on the DVD that the actual process was quite
lengthy (not shown on the programme, of course, probably both for
time and because the later parts of the process wouldn't have been
telly-friendly).

    Cheers,

       Christopher Taylor