Wednesday 30 November 2011

Elephants vs. Lions: Who Will Win?

Elephants are known as the massive, intellectual beasts of the animal kingdom. One stomp from them is like 4000kg box being thrown on top of you. Ouch.

But who dares hunt these beasts? The royalty of predators, lion prides.

Although lions do not normally hunt adult elephants, in desperate times calls for desperate measures. When food is scarce and there isn't anything else to eat, elephants become their prime target.

What makes them such deadly predators is their speed and numbers. A lion by itself has not much more power than a cat. Even a swift kick from a zebra or a stampede from buffalo can injure a single lion. But when they use that speed and teamwork of their pride, they become one of the most feared predators of the land.

Elephants are the largest land animal in the world, their enormous size becomes their only defense. Like lions, they also travel and stay in herds. When adult elephants sense danger, they will form a wall surrounding their young. Try getting through a wall of elephants.Yeah, not going to happen. But what leaves them vulnerable to lions is their poor eyesight in the dark and their slow speed. Lions hunt on them during the night, because the elephants have less sensitive eyesight. It is harder to spot the lions and defend.

When the elephants are finally taken down by a pack of lions, they don't die instantly. The lions of have injured it enough that it cannot fight back anymore, but usually not to the point of death. The lions feast on the elephant while it is still alive, facing a slow and painful death. It usually takes hours for a elephant to pass after an ambush.

The competition for water, the competition for survival may ultimately end in becoming the prey of another. It can be heart wrenching to watch, but it's the Circle of Life and everyone in the end (animal or not) is fighting for their own survival.

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