More Tyrannosaur Stupidity

Isolder74 · Post by **Isolder74** » 2007-06-10 11:36pm

I will give Horner one thing. No meat eater is above eating something that is already dead. That's just the way it is but generally Scavangers are usually smaller.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2007-06-10 11:52pm

Man, I had an 8th grade Science teacher who insisted that hyenas were primarily scavengers. I was sure that no large, terrestrial pack animal could subsist primarily on scavenging, but she was adamant. It really gets me when teachers are full of shit.

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2007-06-11 01:52am

wolveraptor wrote:Man, I had an 8th grade Science teacher who insisted that hyenas were primarily scavengers. I was sure that no large, terrestrial pack animal could subsist primarily on scavenging, but she was adamant. It really gets me when teachers are full of shit.

Yeah, it's total bullshit. No predator is above stealing anothers kill if able, though. Just like us, no one passes up a free meal.

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2007-06-11 03:12am

wolveraptor wrote:I think the musk ox's defensive ring is more instinctive than thought out, if that was what you were referring too.

It probably is, since a musk ox is just a giant sheep.

Elephants are smart, but an isolated one could easily be panicked, I think. Isolation of prey is a basic principle of predation, as well as picking on the young, old, and sick.

Though I've always wondered about the last one. Wouldn't it be dangerous to feed on the meat of sick prey? One would think that the desire to attack sick prey would be evolutionarily weeded out as the predators who did just that died of their prey's diseases.

Not really. Predators in the wild can't risk starving to death by turning down easy meals. The exception is meat that has turned rancid, but extrememly hungry animals have been known to scarf that down, too. Starving to death is a more immediate concern than disease. Besides, a cheetah passing over an obviously diseased gazelle for a healthier-looking member of the herd is not guaranteed to avoid many diseases anyway.