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.

Sharkwater

Sharkwater is a internationally acclaimed documentary by Robert Stewart discussing the fascinating and mysterious creature of the deep: Sharks.

Before this movie, I had the same stereotype of sharks as most other people in this world, that they're dangerous and shouldn't be messed around with.
One of this things changed after the movie: they're not dangerous at all. However, it remains the same that sharks should not be messed around with.

The common misconception is that sharks are dumb and they will eat and go for anything that crosses their path. However, sharks are actually just scared and shy fish. More people are killed by elephants than by sharks.
They're highly intelligent, and follow just about the same rule as every other animal in this world: if you don't bother them, they won't bother you.

But can that rule be applied to humans?
Shark fins are a delicacy and symbolize royal status in Asia. Shark fins have such an enormous price tag on them, that it has become a multi-million black market industry.

Watching this video was heart-wrenching. As a lover of the sea and animals, I could not fathom why people would do such cruel and torturous things to animals. They were killing an entire species, for what? A nice bowl of soup. A tasteless bowl of soup. Sharks had their fins slashed off, and simply thrown back into the sea, dead.

Throughout the movie I wanted to scream at the poachers: "Would you appreciate having parts of your body cut off and then being thrown back to die. No, I don't think so. So you have no right doing that to creatures who have done nothing to you."

But there were also the heroes of the sharks: Stewart, Watson, their team and every protester involved. I greatly admire their passion and commitment. They risked prison, and the wrath of machine guns to try and expose how people were abusing the sharks, and bring more awareness. They provided the foundation of protesting in Costa Rica. They single-handedly saved thousands, possibly millions of sharks of the future from being hunted. It just goes to show how a person and their passion can make such a difference

All in all, the bigger picture is that humans are destroyed this planet. That the damage we have created will eventually and bite us back. And hard. If nothing is done, if we continue our way of living, not only will the animals suffer but we can face our own destruction as well. Without the greed of money, we could find a way to live harmoniously with the world, and not lead it to its destruction.

Clothespin Respiration Activity - Clothespins and Muscle Fatigue

Analysis:

1. Strength decreased as you progressed through each trial.

2. The hand and fingers felt numb, tired, and strained during the end of the trials.

3. Focus and breathing were factors that might have caused more squeezes.

4. The dominant hand had slightly higher results than the non-dominant hand. This is because the dominant hand has more strength and muscle control due to its continual use.

5. The muscles would probably recover after 10 minutes of rest and operate at its original squeeze rate because it had the time to relax and regain energy.