Grappling vs biting

[Supercommunist]

Will probably be inactive for awhile. Family had 3 health scares, nothing too dire, but surgery is being involved.

But before I go on break for an extended period though, here is a video of a heron biting a bobcat. It didn't do much damage, but you can hardly expect much given the weight differences. What's more important was its ability to strike back.



On the old animal forums, people would often argue a big cat was to agile to be hit and could just grapple and kill a terror bird like it was no bigge. (cough cough, Life on our planet).

Seems rather clear that idea is bs.

[mechafire]

Then there are stag beetles, which grapple with biting, so much so that part of the jaw isn’t even for feeding anymore.

[Supercommunist]

Feb 25, 2024 5:39:58 GMT 5 Infinity Blade said:

Could this female bobcat being killed by a coyote count? It's cheating a bit since the coyote must have been larger than it (probably ~40-60% larger, depending on the sex of the coyote), but given how cats can successfully grapple with the heads of horned animals much larger than themselves (where the size discrepancy is much larger than that between an adult bobcat and coyote can be), it does kind of go to show how grappling with a chompy mouth is trickier.

On 10 February 1999 we recovered the carcass of an adult female bobcat that had been radio-collared since October 1995 as part of a larger study on Fort Riley Military Reservation in northeastern Kansas (Kamler, 1998). This bobcat was approximately 5 to 7 years old and had not exhibited any unusual movements prior to her death. Bite marks were observed near the head, neck, and chest area of the carcass, which had not been consumed. The skeleton of the bobcat was cleaned with a digestive enzyme solution. From subsequent inspection of the skeletal remains we inferred that the bobcat had been killed by another carnivore. Size and spacing of canine puncture wounds on the skull and both scapulas matched that of a coyote. In addition to puncture holes at the rear of the skull, the left jugal bone was broken in 2 places. Bite marks occurred on most of the ribs, with a minimum of 13 broken ribs. Several bite marks were observed on the right hind limb, with a fracture on the fibula. This specimen is deposited at the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, Lawrence.

www.jstor.org/stable/3672519?casa_token=G60bdyVZz8wAAAAA%3AtRPclG4gqjwC8kP9MZ2TMjUZUj2XLduU7tuf_VDGhVfxfKG1H05s5PB56JeXzT_MeAOBKrrVttWF5LC34ZWgoZ3hd2pB2fgoSO1-yqpKh0rbyHfCGA

www.reddit.com/r/HardcoreNature/comments/1fy801s/a_coyote_with_a_bobcat_meal/?utm_source=embedv2&utm_medium=post_embed&utm_content=post_body

Lone coyote trees a bobcat and seemed to be intent on attacking it.