Referring to the most ferocious animal, many people will say that it is the honey badger, which dares to fight with leopards, challenges the lions, eats poisonous snakes, and despite being small, has the power to fight. The fight is amazing. But what a lot of people don’t know is that of the weasel species, the honey badger isn’t actually the strongest. The brave performance of the honey badger is mainly to suppress venomous snakes and cobras. As for other carnivores, it can only fight in the form of “Chi Pheo of the animal world”, and in terms of proactive attack, this animal does not have any outstanding achievements, even They can’t even deal with and kill other carnivores.
Today, I will introduce you to another animal in the weasel family and it is really a very aggressive species, although it looks a bit like a mouse and is small, the dose of this animal is more than badger. secret to a few steps. Scientists have discovered that they can kill cats and even lynxes much larger than themselves with a single bite to the head.
The story takes place in the early 21st century, in the northern state of Maine, USA. Researchers have discovered that some Canadian lynx die strangely every winter. Bites from the fangs of predators have been found on their bodies, and the only predators that are active in winter are the Canadian lynx, coyotes, and ferrets.
The researchers measured the bites, compared them with three predators, and found that the width of the bite on most carcasses was between 1-2.4 centimeters. The gap between the canines of the coyote and the Canadian lynx is much wider than this bite. And strangely, these bites perfectly match the size of the ferret’s teeth.
This surprised scientists because ferrets are much smaller than the Canadian lynx – the average weight of a mink is only 4 kg. The local Canadian lynx has an average weight of 11.3 kg for males and 9 kg for females. Normally, compared to the size, the ferret is only the prey of the lynx and their strength cannot surpass the lynx.
However, it turned out that was not the case. Of the 14 lynx killed, only 1 was a baby lynx, and the remaining 13 were all adult lynxes; The baby lynx was killed along with its mother. The researchers performed bone marrow tests on these lynx and found that most of them were perfectly healthy individuals, a few were mildly malnourished, but none were in a state of distress. illness, old age or poor health.
Therefore, most of the subjects attacked here are healthy adult lynx.
The researchers also surveyed the scene of the lynx murders and found that there were only ferret footprints around. Once, researchers even witnessed a ferret sleeping next to the dead lynx, which further confirmed that the ferret was the culprit.
At the same time, the situation at the scene restored the history of the murder. There were traces of lynx lying at the scene, and there were very few traces of battle. The head or neck of the lynx both had puncture wounds with fangs, accompanied by large intracranial hemorrhage. Evidence proves that these lynx were killed by ferrets while they were resting, and killed by a fatal bite to the head. However, biologists also found ferret hair in the mouth of a male lynx, which indicates that it tried to fight back and bite back, but it still did not survive.
We know that carnivores are generally very fearful of each other, and do not want to irritate each other. However, why didn’t the ferrets catch rabbits and rats, but kill the Canadian lynx – which is much larger than them? Why can’t the big cat Canadian lynx beat the ferret?
Maine, located in the northeastern part of the United States and in the southeastern corner of Canada, is home to lynx and mink. Originally, there were very few lynx and ferrets here, so there would be no conflict. However, in the 1980s, large areas of forest were cleared and replanted with primrose and spruce, which provide an ideal breeding ground for snowshoe rabbits.
Snowshoe rabbits are the only staple food of the Canadian lynx and important prey for ferrets, so lynx and ferrets have come here.
And for the same reason Maine is in the north, in the winter with heavy snowfall and lack of food, these factors promote the mutual elimination of carnivores. Research shows that the hunting of the Canadian lynx by ferrets takes place only in the winter. In winter, ferrets have to hide in mature coniferous forests, which have a fairly large canopy and shallow snow.
Mature coniferous forests are also a resting place for the Canadian lynx during the winter, where the Canadian lynx often sleeps.
The snowy environment is a haven for ferrets and this is where they kill the lynx. At the same time, due to the long legs of the Canadian lynx, it is easy to get stuck in the snow and is difficult to pull out, it cannot fight in the snow environment. So in this environment, lynx can only rest and go to sleep, making them a relatively easy target for ferrets.
In people’s impression, the predators of the cat family are very powerful and they are all at the top of the food chain in which they live, such as tigers hunting bears, lions hunting buffalo, lynx can kill the wolf. However, here, for the first time, the cat family was oppressed by another animal.
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