Psychological effects of non head-based killing techniques

Wait ... what?

Basically, this: Most land predators on Earth use their mouths to kill their prey. That is, they have to stick their precious, irreplaceable heads into harm's way every time they want a meal. I speculate that this has an effect on how ... tentative predators can be. Again, wait ... what? I've watched a number of nature videos, and there is often a lot of backing and filling and trying to get behind the prey before making the big rush.

Now imagine a new predator. Think a ravenous kangaroo with a spiked tail. Its attack is to rush up close to the prey then swivel, crashing its cruel spikes into the beast, laming it and causing blood loss. Its head never gets within range of the prey's desperate counter-attacks.

So here's the question. Does it make sense to posit that this (um) "Velocikangaroo" would be more insanely aggressive than your typical mammalian predator, because its attack doesn't risk its head?

Note: I'm ignoring the elephant in the room, ie humans. Humans are not obligate carnivores, and they are psychologically weird anyway, so they don't count for this exercise.

posted about 7 years ago

akaioi‭

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