Re: Utility of Scavenger vs. Predator Argument

[se1aard@itis.com (Seth Ellestad)]

>> BTW, I saw a nature documentary the other night involving lions, reminded
>> me of the T-rex-biting-the-Triceratops-on-the-head thread beacuse the
>> particular lioness in question attacked a Cape Buffalo (a very enormus
>> dangerous animal with big horns), which charged it, but the lioness
>parried
>> the attack by clamping on to the buffalo's face with its teeth and
>twisting
>> the head out of the way, and proceeded to swat-tackle to the ground and
>> dispatch the buffalo in one long, impressive move.  (Come to think of it
>> maybe it was a wildebeest, but I think it was a buffalo).
>
>Thanks for mentioning it.  I wrote that gratuitous refutation of the
>"finding cover for a 5-ton carcass" scenario and it sounds like the lion
>you observed was doing pretty much what I guessed the _T. rex_ was doing.

No problem, that's why I mentioned it, reminded me of that too.  However,
turns out:

It was a wildebeest.  (I doubt a 300-lb lion could tackle a 1000-2000lb
buffalo all by itself).

What the lioness did, all in one long, impressive move, was run at the
wildebeest, which charged it, the lioness parried this, avoiding the horns,
by clamping onto its head with her teeth and twisting its head out of the
way, while swat-tackling it from the front quarter; as this was going on,
the lioness shifted her grip and, as big cats do, clamped onto the
wildebeest's throat with her teeth as it fell to the ground, ending up
pinning by the throat and dispatching it.  Tyrannosaurus' method of
dispatching prey was probably somewhat different than that, but the way the
lioness parried the wildebeest's charging attack, avoiding its horns
reminded me of your possible explination of why the Tyrannosaurus might
bite the Triceratops in the head, as the lioness seemed to be doing the
same thing.

Seth A. Ellestad.