Dogs always snatch lions' food, why don't lions eliminate all hyenas?
On the African savanna, lions and hyenas are veritable enemies, either you are stealing my food, or I am stealing your prey, but neither can completely eliminate the other.
In fact, from a comprehensive perspective, lions are relatively superior to hyenas, but lions have not eliminated hyenas because of two situations: there is a surplus of intention but insufficient strength; or there is no strong motivation to do so. Let's analyze them one by one.
There is a surplus of intention but insufficient strength
Although there is no official statistics on the number of lions and hyenas, from the perspective of endangerment status, the number of hyenas, which is low-risk, far exceeds the number of endangered lions.
Furthermore, hyenas belong to herds, and even if they attack lions, they will suffer heavy losses, so except for stealing food or encountering single lions, lions will not actively attack hyenas.
We know that hyenas and lions are both carnivorous, and from the perspective of food, their food is almost the same, so there is food competition between them.
We know that a complete food chain should include:plants, herbivores, omnivores, carnivores.Among them, omnivores and carnivores need to evolve stronger attack characteristics to obtain energy, such as sharp teeth and claws.
Hyenas and lions belong to carnivores and have these characteristics. If lions want to kill all hyenas, the cost is much greater than simply hunting herbivores, and it is very likely that lions will be attacked by hyenas.
So, although lions hate hyenas, they cannot eliminate all hyenas.
There is no motivation to eliminate hyenas
Although we often call hyenas 'second brothers' and consider them opportunistic, scientists have observed that lions steal hyenas' food more than hyenas steal lions' food in the natural environment. And hyenas get a lot of their food by hunting themselves, so when lions are single, hyenas will retreat.
In addition, lions rarely eat hyenas' meat. We know that hyenas not only hunt but also eat carrion. Carrion contains a large number of microorganisms. Hyenas have strong stomach acid and their immunity is strong, which can eliminate microorganisms in carrion and then discharge feces with fewer viruses, thus purifying the environment and preventing microorganisms from rampant. Lions can also occasionally eat carrion, but it is not a cost-effective deal, because microorganisms on hyenas may make lions sick and even die.
Furthermore, lions need to spend more energy to hunt hyenas, and the success rate is very low, which easily leads to lions dying of hunger.
If lions use the energy to hunt other herbivores, the probability of lions surviving will be greatly improved.
Therefore, although hyenas are hated, lions do not have the motivation to kill all hyenas, and they rarely fight with each other when encountering hyenas, preferring to drive them away.
Energy flow
In fact, the underlying logic behind why lions don't kill all hyenas is
They are both at the top of the food chain
and there is no predator-prey relationship between them.
All energy sources on Earth basically come from solar energy. Plants can convert solar energy into biological energy through photosynthesis. Other animals obtain energy directly or indirectly from plants.
That is, energy is transferred from plants to herbivores to carnivores, but with each transfer, about 90% of the energy is wasted, so energy transfer has a terminus, which is the top predator.Since a lot of energy is lost in each transfer, the number of organisms at the top of the food chain is obviously lower than the number of organisms at the bottom, such as the number of plants is greater than the number of herbivores, and the number of herbivores is greater than the number of carnivores.Lions and hyenas belong to top carnivores. If lions prey on hyenas, not only will it be difficult to capture them, but because the number of hyenas is less than the number of herbivores, lions will be extinct because they cannot capture enough food.
Therefore, lions and hyenas do not have a predator-prey relationship, but only a food competition relationship.
Summary
Lions don't kill all hyenas because of two reasons: their strength doesn't allow it, and hyenas don't threaten their survival, so they don't have a strong motivation to kill each other.
Animals are more tolerant than humans. They will not exterminate creatures they dislike, only humans will exterminate creatures that threaten their existence.
