3 ms·
That sounds very cool! Although the rationalization for it sounds rather contrived - to me at least any of these explanation would sound at least as plausible:
by m12k 14y ago
That sounds very cool! Although the rationalization for it sounds rather contrived - to me at least any of these explanation would sound at least as plausible:
1) The sudden vertical movement may cause a predator that is used to tracking its prey horizontally to lose sight of the specific animal in the flock, thus making it harder to run it down.
2) Statistically, the jump may prove to evade a certain percentage of pounces from the predator, that happen to coincide with it.
3) The split second of "rest" while in the air allows the muscles to "recharge" enough energy to enable another small sprint, thus giving the antelope a lifeline.
4) "Look, I could just as well be kicking you in the head if you get too close"
- takluyver 14y agoOther details suggest 1 & 2 are unlikely - they tend to make this manoeuvre when the predator is still some way off, and at least one species (Thomson's Gazelle) won't stot when a predator is within about 40 metres. It seems unlikely that the rest would outweigh the effort needed to jump 2 metres in the air (3), and I doubt a lion is worried about a kick from a gazelle (4). But yes, other explanations have been proposed. There's a list on Wikipedia if you look up Stotting.