17 October 2007

You HAVE to see this video, the action is slow to start but, wow... see it before reading the rest. One reason this is so spectacular is that it is so rare in nature. As i understand, lions usually attack the weak elements of the herd, and they may only get horned if they are not careful in choosing their prey (or if themselves are weak/old/young). But it seems they were pretty wise in this case, picking a young one. So they couldn't imagine the buffaloes coming back and being so persistent. From a human perspective on may wonder, what could prevent the bulls to kick lions' asses all the time with such a strategy? One interesting thing i saw is that the bulls were, well, bullying, but direct attacks were rare (though efficient) and only by very few individuals. With such mass and horns, they could have really torn the lions to shred even more than they did. But i am thinking as a human, and my ancestors are the one who applied consistent group strategies (and fire) with the consequences we know. They had the communication skills to transmit strategies and the big brains to remember elaborate better and better ones, and adapt to new situations. But are our communications skills so unique? How did the first buffalos communicate to their fellows something like, "hey guys, they got young charlie, we weren't enough to protect him, let's all go back all together and we can kick their ass, quick he might still be alive, quick!" Really, how do you say that in buffalean? (especially noteworthy if it's a rare event) Now for the ultimate question; did the young buffalo really survive after all this??

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