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Comments on How do I realistically keep my large mammalian predator hidden from other pack hunters.

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How do I realistically keep my large mammalian predator hidden from other pack hunters.

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What coloration pattern/ technique could a large mammalian predator employ to evade detection from other mammalian predators at 100 -> 20 meter distances (or close enough so that it could sprint into them, and run away).

In my world building scenario there exists what essentially amounts to a Giant Hyena. This animal has the following characteristics:

  • It's 3000kg

  • It hunts mostly solo

  • It has amazing sense of hearing and smell (but otherwise not particularly spectacular eyesight)

  • It is "smart" however you want to take that.

  • It gets its food from scaring away other scavengers from opportunistic meals

  • It has massive neck and jaw muscles

  • It also gets food from tracking pack hunters, figuring out the size of the group from a long distance away using its advanced sense of hearing and smell, then using its powerful jaws to pick one of the animals off and run away with it

  • It lives in what is essentially the African Savannah and slightly wetter places. So it would prey on other Hyenas, Painted dogs, and Lions.

In order to sneak up on pack predators, it needs to be able to get in close enough undetected, so at the right moment it can pick up one of the pack members and sprint away with a meal. I don't need something that works 100% of the time, just enough that it won't go extinct because of the failure rates.

Changing the environment to a degree is acceptable.

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General comments (2 comments)
General comments
Canina‭ wrote over 4 years ago

For what it's worth, about that success rate... wolves are widely considered quite successful hunters, and I would need to dig out an actual number, but as I recall, they only actually succeed in bringing down a prey animal in something like one hunt in ten or twenty. That also, of course, depends on how you delineate the "hunt"; any wild predator is basically hunting a large portion of their waking time, albeit likely most of that time at what would be considered a low intensity.

Canina‭ wrote over 4 years ago

Also, 3000 kg is huge. For comparison, a hippopotamus is typically 1300-1500 kg (says Wikipedia), and a rhinoceros varies between 850 kg and 3200 kg depending on subspecies and gender.