The Most Unfortunate and Ferocious Large Animals in Nature Account for 40.7% of the Tiger's Diet
Nature is absolutely fair. Unlike language, writing, and money, which shape human society into a system of fictitious concepts that divide people into different classes, high and low, noble and base, nature’s energy predation has formed a fair food chain for all living things. Bacteria, plants, and plankton convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into energy, while large bottom-level animals collect this energy to provide more efficient energy for higher-level carnivores, and after the death of large carnivores, bacteria and microbes take over to convert them back into energy. In this fair-running energy conversion chain, all kinds of animals can find their own positions, which maintains the vibrant and thriving life on Earth, and currently, it seems that there is no other planet in the universe that has such a scene.
The most pitiful ones may be seals and sea lions. They can hunt many small marine animals, such as various fish, shellfish, octopuses, and penguins, but they are also the main food of many powerful predators, such as sharks, killer whales, and polar bears. Dolphins and whales have the same fate, they also played the role of predators and prey. Dolphins and whales mainly feed on fish, but they are also killed by sharks, killer whales, and polar bears. Since there are few herbivorous animals in the ocean, there are many such species in the ocean, but I have no time to list them all on this list.
Now, what about on land? Do you have such animals?
Of course, the most pitiful ones may be bears. As a large animal that is awe-inspiring, besides polar bears and pandas, other bears are omnivores, mainly preying on small animals, as well as foraging for fruits, nuts, and honey. Perhaps it is because of their indiscriminate eating habits, they are clumsy and easily become the prey of large carnivorous animals, such as tigers. A 2005 study in Russia pointed out that 40.7% of the diet of Siberian tigers (tigers) were juvenile Asian black bears and brown bears (Wikipedia: tigers).
However, some studies also claim that in many cases, tigers do not always have the upper hand in confrontations with bears and sometimes can be killed by bears, and there have been cases where bears have stolen tigers’ prey.
Of course, we can’t say that only bears are unlucky and have a difficult fate. Leopards, wolves, pythons, and crocodiles, as top predators, sometimes also encounter bad luck because they are opportunity-driven, free-spirited, and romantic in nature, and anyone who encounters them may become a dish.
However, pythons and crocodiles are also nightmares for many small predators, such as weasels and some small canids and felids, and they often find that these large carnivorous animals are trying to steal their prey.
Therefore, sometimes we think that humans rely on these fictitious things to establish territories, at least most people can live to their twilight years. But in the animal kingdom, once the position in the energy predation chain is solidified, everyone knows that you are someone else's food. Except for humans, who may occasionally shed a tear for you, in the long history of Earth’s life evolution, you can only live in fear and anxiety, waiting for the moment to contribute energy to another predator.
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