In nature, wolves, bears, and tigers are all carnivores at the top of the food chain. In terms of body size, the average size of bears is larger than that of tigers, and bears can be said to be one of the few on land that can be as big as tigers. A higher existence. So, why are wolves afraid of tigers, but not afraid of bears that can fight tigers? Let’s explore this issue together. First, let’s take a look at whether there is any conflict between wolves and bears in the wild?
Wolf, also known as gray wolf, is the animal with the most subspecies in the canidae family. There are as many as 45 subspecies of gray wolf in the world. They are mainly distributed in Asia, Europe, America and Australia. Among all gray wolf subspecies, the British Columbia wolf in North America is the largest, with an average weight of about 60 kilograms. There are 5 genera and 8 species in the Ursidae family, with a total of more than 30 different subspecies. Among them, the brown bear has the most subspecies, with 20 different subspecies. Judging from the distribution of bears, in addition to being distributed in Europe, Asia, and North America, they are also distributed in North Africa.
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Therefore, the distributions of bears and gray wolves overlap. Moreover, gray wolves are pure carnivores, and their prey range in size from small to large. Although most bears are omnivores, they also have hunting habits, and their prey are mostly large animals. Therefore, bears and wolves also overlap in terms of prey, which is destined to conflict between the two animals in reality.
Why are wolves not afraid of bears? In fact, it is unscientific to say that wolves are not afraid of bears. After all, some bears are so big that even if a tiger sees them, they will stay away. However, as the saying goes, "wealth is gained through danger", the habit of living in groups of gray wolves must be supported by more food, so whenever food is scarce, the wolves will not miss any opportunity to eat meat. Even if it is "taking food from a bear's mouth".
Of course, when "a bear's mouth snatches food", the wolves also have strategies. First of all, a group of wolves will snatch the bear's prey from all angles, which will overwhelm the bear. Secondly, bears have poor flexibility due to their huge size, which means that when faced with predators from wolves, bears do not have enough flexibility to drive them away. Of course, when wolves attack a bear, the main purpose is the bear's prey, not the bear itself.
Therefore, wolves saw the shortcomings of bear species’ poor flexibility and chose to snatch bears’ prey during periods of food scarcity. Of course, this does not mean that wolves are not afraid of bears, it is just a helpless move. Also faced with ferocious beasts, why do wolves rarely snatch prey from tigers? First of all, from the distribution of gray wolf subspecies, the Siberian wolf and Siberian tiger have the greatest chance of encountering tigers. The Siberian tiger is the largest existing cat, and it has the ability to kill wolves in an instant.
Secondly, and most importantly, as a large cat, the Siberian tiger is not as bulky as a bear, but is very flexible. Siberian tigers are very capable of jumping, climbing trees, running and swimming. If a pack of wolves robs the Siberian tiger of its prey, the Siberian tiger can easily kill one or even multiple gray wolves. As a pack of smart wolves whose purpose is food, this is obviously not cost-effective.
It is precisely because tigers are more flexible and have better hunting abilities than bears that the wolves gave up their thoughts on tigers. Of course, in the wild environment, when tigers encounter wolves hunting, they usually take a detour. They belong to the category of "well water does not interfere with river water". This gives people the feeling that a wolf is afraid of a tiger. It's not that wolves are not afraid of bears, but bears' bulkiness allows them to get as much food as possible, which is like a life-saving straw in times of food scarcity.
The reason why the wolf did not pay attention to the tiger was mainly because the tiger was too flexible and posed too great a threat to itself. In general, wolves are smart social animals that maximize their own interests and minimize harm. This creates the illusion that wolves are not afraid of bears, but are afraid of tigers.
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