Live animals being used as food in zoo's?

[KennyGee]

It was a Baby elephant

 

[Arietans]

For lions to attack an elephant, even a baby, they must've been very hungry. I would love to see the footage though, it doesn't happen very often.

 

[Ganoderma]

jarrell. live isnt necesarrily bad (i dont think anyoen here is simply against it) and does give good stimulation. but no matter how much physical/mental stimulation if the prey can kill the predator it does not do much good in a zoo....feeding relativly harmless prey like chickens and such are not so bad but what about feeding your cat an implala or something....surely there are many incidences in the wild where the predator gets a good stab with horns or fatal kick etc...

safety is generally the first and foremost concern in any zoo.

good point about the size of prey. is that why the meercat thing worked? they were not as interested in it? i know very little about mamals and find it intersting that they will pass up food for a chance to get bigger...is this an energy conservation thing? i always see lions and wolves and such givign up chasing fast prey (liek rabbits) on TV. is this why?

 

[Arietans]

Predators often get killed or seriously mamed by prey. I have spent most of my life in the African bush and have seen many predators seriously injured by intended prey. Lions kicked to death by Giraffe, leopards mamed by porcupine etc. The risk a predator takes with any large game is very high.

The prey is fighting for its life, the lion is fighting for a full stomach. The motivation for the prey is much stronger.


Predators here tend to take bigger prey because they have to hunt less to say well fed. Its not so much energy conservation as it is success rate. Lions have an average of about 33% success with kills. 33 out of a hundred buffalos is way more filling than 33 out of a hundred rabbits.

As for meerkat, solitary lions often kill and eat them in the wild, since a solitary lion has almost no chance of a successful kill of large prey. Since zoo lions are well fed, they have no need to hunt something as small as a meerkat.