Spotted Hyena vs. Ostrich

[full]

May 2, 2016 0:46:26 GMT 5 Infinity Blade said:

I don't really know what you mean by "they don't look specialized for speed"

I said they DO look (very) specialized for speed. As in, they look really streamlined in addition to the cursorial adaptations canids have, hence these dogs "look very specialized for speed".

I mean, they're sighthounds, so speed is a pretty big part of the game, but aesthetics aside these dogs have both the speed and the endurance to keep pace with an ostrich over a prolonged chase, while the hyena may not have the same velocity it it probably exceeds them in terms of stamina, so I don't believe pursuit would be an issue.

I don't think I agree. If a hyena is unable to achieve the same maximal running speed as a boer greyhound in order to give it the initial speed to catch up with the bird, then what real use would its superior stamina be?

Also, I never stated the dogs caught or engaged the ostrich, to my knowledge they are primarily used to bring them to bay for relocation.

Earlier on it looked like you implied that they did.

I don't think an ostrich is beyond a lone hyena's capability, the really difficult part would be catching the bird, but this is a feat hunting dogs have achieved so I think a hyena would be capable of it too.

I actually disagree with the forward kicks being more effective, in the proposed chase scenario it basically means the ostrich's only hope would be flight, if the hyena or those dogs were to employ their typical hunting strategy of targeting flanks/hindquarters the ostrich is much more vulnerable than an ungulate of comparable size in a chase scenario.

That's true, but I wasn't really proposing a chase scenario. I was still imagining a fight where the hyena goes past the kicking limbs of either the ostrich or ungulate. If the hyena gets past the ostrich's front, it's free to attack its rear. If the hyena gets past the hindlimbs of an ungulate, it's free to attack its underbelly or whatever.

Facing your opponent is undeniably advantageous, but in such scenarios hyenas manage to evade charges, hooves and horns of other prey wearing it down until an opening appears. In terms of forward facing defense the hyenas prey, while not kicking forward in the same manner as a ratite they are often equpied with horns, tusks and other such offensive weapon, so hyenas aren't unaccustomed to evading frontal strikes by prey.

Oh, right, I completely forgot about goring weapons. My bad. Although, it makes me wonder if the charges and goring attempts of these ungulates are quite as swift or sudden as a limb strike.

When dispatching prey hyenas aren't relying solely on a prey animals stability, they are seeking to cause mechanical damage sufficient enough to allow feeding with minimized struggling, but by dragging your quarry to the ground you gain an advantage, and the fact that hyenas are physically capable of pulling bull wildebeest and topi to the ground does show that they are capable of destabilizing large animals.

Okay then.

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I think (actually, always thought) the hyena stands a great chance here, and who knows, maybe it'll even win more often than not. I just don't think it'll be easy.

Oops, sorry mate, seems I misread a decent chunk of your post there, my bad

At any rate I stand by my earlier convictions that a hyena would take this more times than not , but with that said,  these birds are crazy man, speed demons. 

[Deleted]

Da heck? Hyena wins. Ostrich can kick hard, but I think the hyena can pull this off.

[Infinity Blade]

Da heck?

What the hell is that supposed to mean? Yes, the hyena is arguably too much for the bird, but give the ostrich its credit. It's no joke with the kind of damage it can cause and the kinds of offensive maneuvers it has to its disposal.

Landing foot first onto his chest, Waldo, using his razor sharp toe, ripped Cash’s stomach wide open down to his belt, breaking two ribs in the process and a further three when he hit the ground. As he remembered in his autobiography, “if the belt hadn’t been good and strong, with a solid buckle, he’d have spilled my guts exactly the way he meant to”.

Source

A 71-year-old male patient presented with intra abdominal injury sustained from being kicked in the abdominal wall by an ostrich. During laparotomy, were found free peritoneal effusion and perforation of the small intestine.

Ostriches usually inflict injury in one of two ways. The first type and most serious injury is that of a slash or laceration, usually to the lower abdomen or limbs, caused by the ostrich kicking in a forward and downward motion with its powerful foot. The toe nail of the ostrich is sharp and is used by the ostrich for protection against predators.

link

The ostrich is a strange and harmless looking bird; however, in Africa attacks by ostriches on humans are not uncommon and sometimes result in death. We recently treated such a patient with an eye injury.

A 35 year old male patient presented with an injury sustained from being kicked in the face by an ostrich (Struthio camelus).

On examination the right eye was found to be normal but he had vision of bare light perception on the left with proptosis of the globe and severe chemosis of the conjunctiva. Both upper and lower lids were avulsed medially. There was limitation in all positions of gaze which was more noticeable on attempted abduction (fig 1​1).). The eye was soft and he had an oedematous cornea and a full hyphema. The posterior segment could not be visualised.

link (to see just what kind of damage was done, look at Fig. 1).

Disembowelment, globe and orbit perforations, and even esophageal perfortion have been documented after ostrich attack (Chauhdry, Al-Sharif, et al., 2003; Mostafa and Galiwango, 2004; Khan and Olumide, 2006).

link

Provoked and unprovoked attacks on humans by captive Ostriches have been recorded, which have resulted in minor injuries such as scrapes and bruises (King 2007), or more serious injuries such as a fractured skull (del Hoyo et al 1992, Khan and Olumide 2006) and loss of vision from kicks or pecks to the eye (Chaudhry et al 2003, Levitz et al 2004).

Source: Risk Assessment for Australia – Ostrich (Struthio camelus) (Linnaeus, 1758).

The following quote claims some of the same stuff as before, and even says that the force of an ostrich's kick rivals that of a horse's. I initially found this hard to believe, given that a horse is much larger than any living bird. But it should be noted that ratites like ostriches have the proportionately largest leg muscles of all living animals (see the abstract of Hutchinson et al., 2011); maybe this would enable kicks to be disproportionately powerful for their size?

A quick forward thrust of their foot with its extended claw can disembowel a person, and the powerful blow of a kick can break arms and legs (Spruill, 2004). In addition, they may attack and knock down unfamiliar handlers. These birds can kick forward or backward, and the forces produced by these kicks approach that of a horse kick.

link

Not only does it have a damaging clawed kick that goes forwards and rakes downwards, but it can also use its large, bony sternum as a weapon too.

The second type of injury is seen more commonly, occuring when the ostrich uses its bony breast plate as a ram to knock the person to the ground [6]. The ostrich then jumps upon the victim and, because an ostrich weighs 75–150 kg, this may cause contusion of the torso with rib fractures.

link

[marsupial]

In my opinion, if they did try to battle one on one the hyena would have a good chance on winning. That being said, in a realistic scenario the ostrich would run away and out speed the hyena.

[dinosauria101]

I favor the hyena, it's got the tools to win here.
However, those ostrich kicks are dangerous.