I’ve read already that when it comes to prey animals, the hunter is probably waiting for it to die or looking at their surroundings, and the prey animal is playing dead so it has slightly more chances of surviving or something similar.
But when it comes to bigger and stronger animals, why do they do this? Like, for example, a documentary video on youtube popped in my recommended with two bears fighting each other, first off they start “shouting” to each other, and then they fight, but after fighting for a while, they just both stop and look at each other, and one of them even has their neck open for an attack of the other bear, so it’s in a vulnerable position, still though, none of them attack nor do anything for quite some time.
I’ve seen this happen in documentaries and videos and stuff with a lot of other animals, not necessarily bears, so why do they do this?
In: Biology
Few animals fight to the death or even want to kill their opponent. It always carries some risk of an injury to the victor and that can cause infection or disability which would impact on the ability to feed or defend their territory against future interlopers. So fights generally end with one individual retreating. They will usually try and decide who is the stronger by threat, displaying or roaring for instance. If that doesn’t work and they do get to an actual fight, a pause in the action gives one or the other the chance to decide that they are against a stronger opponent and should end it now before they risk getting badly injured.
Rule #1 when fighting a cat as a cat. Never turn around. A lot of predators do this as defense. They have front facing eyes, they know they can kill with one blow or be killed with one blow. Makes sense to stay locked on your target and make decisive blows.
Also conserving energy is very very important for hunting. Unnecessary movements eat that up.
That’s what I think anyways.
There is a lot to unpack here. Essentially, every animal is an expert of its own life experience and develops unique behaviours to allow it to survive. (For however long/short that life may be).
Class 1 predators may have learned from experience to observe their immediate surroundings as the sound of struggling prey may attract other hunters. An animal that has chased and subdued it’s prey is likely more fatigued than animals engaged in dedicated kleptopredation.
Sparring animals are not specifically looking to kill the opponent. They want to show dominance. If the other animal dies, so be it, but the observed behaviours indicate that the animals are likely providing room for the other party to withdraw from combat. Especially if the loser of the fight offers a vulnerable body part to attack – which is considered the animal, “giving up”.
The conclusion here is that every fight or hunt, an animal is gambling with its life. It’s why class 1 predators only attack prey that are a, “sure thing”. Males who spar for mates or for territory, are ultimately are gambling with their lives. To “finish” their opponent may be in the cost-benefit analysis the animal conducts and concludes it is not worth it.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022519304003431
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvd1c929?turn_away=true&Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=fighting&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicResults%3Fsi%3D1%26amp%3Bso%3Dnew%26amp%3BsearchType%3DfacetSearch%26amp%3Bdisc_zoology-discipline_facet%3Dem9vbG9neS1kaXNjaXBsaW5l%26amp%3BQuery%3Dfighting&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_SYC-5152%2Fcontrol&refreqid=search%3Aa2be8aeb950571afb1df0c6ccee77f06
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