Post by Infinity Blade on Jan 3, 2020 20:22:23 GMT 5
Well, mobbing the enemy isn't necessarily herbivore-specific - floats of crocs do it too, and we have several matches with floats of crocodilians.
Crocodilians actually appear to have some sophistication and organization to their gregarious hunting behavior.
From Dinets (2014):
In 2012, I conducted an informal survey of crocodile researchers, conservationists and amateur enthusiasts, asking for observations of complex hunting behavior, and received some descriptions strikingly similar to MIKLOUKHO-MAKLAY’s account. Alex Mitchell, Supervisor of Reptiles in Cairns Tropical Zoo, Australia, reported the following observation of Johnston’s crocodiles (Crocodylus johnstoni), made in July 2008 from 22:00 hr onwards in Lakefield National Park, Queensland, Australia:
A group of approximately five crocodiles were sitting in a shallow area of the main river adjacent to a sandy river bank. I witnessed over a period of approximately 1.5–2 hrs two to three crocodiles at a time “herding” small fish which I presume were Rainbow Fish, Melanotaenia sp., into the shallows allowing the remaining crocodiles to feed upon them.
Similar observations were made by Chip Campbell, a visitor services contractor for Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia, USA. He reported that in 12 years of observing American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis), he had seen cooperative feeding on three occasions, and two of those were “quite evidently coordinated, as a phalanx of ‘drivers’ pushed schools of fish (entrapped in the shrinking pools) to waiting ‘catchers’”. He described one observation, made in 2011, as follows:
One morning in early May, we arrived at work to find approximately 60 alligators gathered in our boat basin. This gathering demonstrated the most consistent and seemingly coordinated behavior I have yet observed. The animals appeared to alternate between two strategies: the “driving” phalanx described about and something I called the “purse seine” approach – the phalanx would ease itself into a loose semi-circle and then close in, pushing the fish into the shallows and against the bulkheads. Hunting behavior was almost constant, but at any given time, 1/3–1/2 of the animals seemed to be resting and “waiting their turn”. When an alligator captured a fish, it would swim over and join the “resting” gators after swallowing its fish – and one of the previously dormant gators would slide out to join the active hunting group. This continued until about lunch time, at which point most (not all) of the alligators began to break away and disperse. They did it again the following morning – about the same number of alligators and for about the same length of time.
A group of approximately five crocodiles were sitting in a shallow area of the main river adjacent to a sandy river bank. I witnessed over a period of approximately 1.5–2 hrs two to three crocodiles at a time “herding” small fish which I presume were Rainbow Fish, Melanotaenia sp., into the shallows allowing the remaining crocodiles to feed upon them.
Similar observations were made by Chip Campbell, a visitor services contractor for Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia, USA. He reported that in 12 years of observing American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis), he had seen cooperative feeding on three occasions, and two of those were “quite evidently coordinated, as a phalanx of ‘drivers’ pushed schools of fish (entrapped in the shrinking pools) to waiting ‘catchers’”. He described one observation, made in 2011, as follows:
One morning in early May, we arrived at work to find approximately 60 alligators gathered in our boat basin. This gathering demonstrated the most consistent and seemingly coordinated behavior I have yet observed. The animals appeared to alternate between two strategies: the “driving” phalanx described about and something I called the “purse seine” approach – the phalanx would ease itself into a loose semi-circle and then close in, pushing the fish into the shallows and against the bulkheads. Hunting behavior was almost constant, but at any given time, 1/3–1/2 of the animals seemed to be resting and “waiting their turn”. When an alligator captured a fish, it would swim over and join the “resting” gators after swallowing its fish – and one of the previously dormant gators would slide out to join the active hunting group. This continued until about lunch time, at which point most (not all) of the alligators began to break away and disperse. They did it again the following morning – about the same number of alligators and for about the same length of time.
The fourth predation attempt looked very different. It happened at dusk (~ 20 min after sunset), shortly before the high tide, when the trail was almost covered by water. A pig walking along the trail was approached by a large crocodile (probably the same individual as in the calf predation attempt) moving underwater on the western side of the trail. When the crocodile was 5 m from the pig, and apparently still in deep water, it suddenly erupted from the water with its jaws widely open and its tail splashing. To me, this behavior looked more like a threat display than the sneaky approaches to prey normally used by crocodilians. The pig ran away from the croc, leaving the trail and wading into the water on the eastern side of the trail. At that moment I noticed two other crocodiles, 3–4 m long, floating just under the water surface east of the trail. One of them seized the pig. The largest crocodile quickly crossed the trail and also seized the pig. All animals moved away from the trail and submerged, apparently drowning their prey.
Not to mention, the Cape buffalo against the lions seemed to be at least MODERATELY coordinated:
If those buffalo were coordinated to any degree it wasn't very obvious. One scene had a bunch of them approach the lions, only to scatter off when one got close. They're about as coordinated as a bunch of random people (who don't necessarily know each other) crowding a scene. Another had a few buffalo charging at the lions at once while the majority only watched. Again, doesn't necessarily translate to any degree of coordination.
That's not all - prairie dogs will coordinate to trap rattlesnakes in their burrows and bury them alive.
Even if that were true, that has little bearing on the plausibility of a herd of Triceratops attacking a giant sauropod together.
