Watching the Discovery channel I occasionally see animals fighting (interspecies) in really interesting/unusual circumstances. Some of these are cool because its a situation where the winner eats the loser :eek: and it seems like both animals are trying to eat their opponent.
Most notable was a praying mantis vs a scorpion. In this match up I was actually rooting for the scorpion- its got those claws and most importantly the stinger. However, despite its size, the mantis had no trouble snatching the scoripion up and devouring it. I was hoping to see some epic struggle among invertibrae, but no, it was just grabchomp chomp chomp (by the way mantids are viscious little bastards; I tried to pick one up once and the little guy started furiously swiping at me! I had no idea it would be so brave)
Something else cool that I have seen on TV (but would like to see in real life) is 2 rival groups of ants fighting. It looks like a little war going on, with the victors pillaging the loser’s nest of food and larvae.
This wasn’t interspecies, but one time I saw a battle between two hippos. Absolutely amazing. Finally, one of them was able to sink his tusks into the other one’s neck–and he as chomping down like there was no tomorrow.
The one being bitten was able to get away, and as it was trying to run away, the victor was right behind him, chomping away on his a$$.
Indeed, there was no tomorrow for the loser. The cameraman followed the trail the next morning, and found it, where it was already providing food for other critters.
I also saw some desert wasp that grabbed a cockroach by its antennae (I think it had already stung it), and walked it over to its nest to provide food for its larvae.
I saw a praying mantis get in a fight with a tarsier. The tarsier was so small that the size difference was like a person fighting a bear. Surprisngly the mantis was able to fight off the larger mammal and slink off.
In the Museum of Natural history, they have a display of two dinsoaurs fighting - they were found together after apparently getting buried in a sandslide or the like. The velociraptor-type had a claw behind the head plates of the small-stegosaur type,which had the raptor’s leg in it’s mouth, apparently having broken that leg in the fight. That was the position they were entombed in, and are now displayed in.
Insect battles are the coolest. Once I remember watching as a nest of ants attacked a wounded beetle on my sidewalk; over the course of about fifteen minutes, they swarmed over the beetle and bit or stung it to death, and then began the laborious process of dismantling it to carry it back to their nest.
Probably the most epic battle I saw, though, was between a spider and the wasp it had caught in its web. The spider kept darting in, trying to bite the wasp, but the wasp would say, “Nuts to that!” and lash out with its stinger at the spider every time it approached, meanwhile desperately trying to get free from the web. Good stuff!
You would think that if a lion attacked a mongoose the outcome would be a foregone conclusion but I once saw film of a mongoose going toe to toe with a young lion… just on size alone it would be akin to me taking on an elephant.
Despite having it’s leg broken the mongoose did not back down and continued to fight until the lion was driven off.
I saw a mother moose trying to fend off a huge wolverine that wanted her calf once from the safety of a helicopter. It was the biggest wolverine I’ve ever seen and unfortunately we had to leave before the battle was decided. Pretty wild to fly over a hill and come up on something like that going on.
One intersting one I saw on a nature program was between a crocodile and a large cat. It was interesting to see how much faster the cat was in terms of reaction speed, seems N million years of evolution did make a difference. The crock just couldn’t move fast enough to hit the cat (think it was a female Lion) and the cat was able to keep the crock busy until her young were out of danger.
Cheers, Bippy
i havent really seen too many cool battles like those, but ive seen some interesting ones…
dog vs. cat - the dog almost ripped the cat in half, but the cat took one swipe at the dog’s nose and it sliced open like an orange. needless to say the dog ran away like a pussy.
cat vs. cat - this was a cool fight, it was a bigger, older cat against a younger kitten that pissed off the bigger one. they went nuts on the street, until finally the one cat bit off the bigger cat’s ear and he ran away.
dog vs. dog - this fight sucked, two labs that just wrestled for 20 minutes. no blood, nothing.
small dog vs. giant parakeet-type bird - this fight was funny. the bird was as big as the dog, and its beak was friggin sharp. the dog grabbed the bird’s leg and whipped him around for a bit till the bird got onto the dog’s back and pecked him into submission.
I have 3 cats. One day, a neighborhood dog (a labrador, I think) managed to wander into our house, and of course the cats didn’t take this well. They managed to get it into a corner and start hitting it. Their front paws are declawed, but since the dog was a nice dog, it just sat in terror as the 3 cats ganged up on it. Eventually we were able to grab the cats and let the dog free. Although I felt sorry for the poor dog, secretly I was proud of my cats defending our house from the intruder.
Baboon vs tiny african deer.
The baboon grabbed the deer’s youngster and was about to devour it but the mother went mad and started butting the baboon, twice its size, in a frenzy to get its kid back (which it did.) It was an excellent way of displaying the lengths parents will go to protect their offspring.
Oh yeah, I also saw Baboon vs Cheetah. Or more like a gang of baboons (what do you call a group of baboons anyway? A Homicide?) The cheetah had caught a gazelle or something but as it was dragging it off a baboon came along and tried to steal it. Pretty funny watching a baboon holding the legs of the gazelle in its arms while the cheetah was still holding it in its mouth, the cheeta growling and the baboon screeching. The baboon called for backup and some more baboons appeared. The cheetah dropped the kill and started fighting one, which bolted. Then something funny happened.
You know that gag in movies where Guy 1 is fighting Guy 2, and Guy 1 chases Guy 2 but suddenly stops because Guy 2 has like 50 buddies behind him? Same thing happened. Cheetah chased the Baboon a distance, then suddenly stopped as like 50 baboons started to close in on the cheetah. The cheetah definitely had an expression of surprise and alarm and seemed to say, “uh, I didn’t even want that gazelle anyway!” and bolted.
I saw a cone shell spear and then eat a fish. Pretty cool. First it spiked the fish, then, its mouth/stomach appeared practically out of nowhere and just gulped the sucker down.
I also saw some hyenas against a rhino. No match, right? But what they did was some of them distracted “mama,” and the others herded the baby away while mama was distracted. After the hyenas broke of the attack, baby was nowhere to be found.
My friend had to break up a terrifically violent fight between two Canadian geese. The battle raged just offshore in the lake for a full fifteen minutes before one tried to run for shore (too tired to fly). As soon as they hit land the “winner” knocked him on his back and then kept leaping in the air and jumping on his opponent’s neck!
My friend had to shoo away the “winner.”
The loser was lying on his back, wings outstratched going “hooooonnnnnk… hoOoOo…ooooonk” for a few minutes before they realized he was too exhausted to get back on his own feet, so they had to go and flip him over.
And he settled back on the water for a float and some solace from having his butt kicked.
You wouldn’t think fighting geese would be cool, but quite a crowd had gathered in amazement.
Well Jack v. the ninja that blended into the dark was pretty cool as was Bulbasaur v. Scyther. You would think Bulbasaur would be toast being a grass type fighting a bug type, but…
Wait, you said Cool animal battles, not anime. Whoops. How about:
A goldfinch v. some type of raptor (hawk?)
The finch was pretty fast and was overmanuevering the hawk, but it looked like it was getting tired. The finch flew into some bushes. The hawk followed then BAM! About six finches popped out of the bush catching the hawk off guard and frightening it away. Smart little guys. The first one tired the hawk out and its friends came in for the finishing blows.
“hoooooonnnnnk… hoOoOo…ooooooonk” I’m tempted to make that a part of my sig, but its’ already so long. I hate Canadian geese with a passion and would love to see them cull their own population in cool fights like the one you described Eats_Crayons.
I’ve seen squid vs. shark (on a documentary). It wasn’t really much of a tussle - more of a solitary punch thrown, but basically there were a group of sharks feeding on some dead thing and a group of squid came cruising past. One squid just seemed to lash out against a particular shark for no reason (I think Begby from Trainspotting would have approved) with a force that knocked the shark sideways a few feet.
The shark was all like, “WTF? Easy, mate! I just came in for a quick pint…” and swam off. There was no doubt in my mind that this was the deep-sea version of a biker gang arriving at a bar and cracking a few heads ‘just to make the point’.
(Don’t mess with squid. They’ve got beaks, apparently).
We had a holy terror of a cat living at our fire station a couple of years ago. He was scarred up like Frankenstein’s Monster, and he loved a good fight. The Chief hated him, so of course we gave him food and shelter and had him immunized.
I watched “Rock” beat up raccoons and possums, but the best encounter was when an off duty fireman brought his Dalmatian in. I was petting the dog and noticed Rock slinking off under a truck. “Too big for the Rock.” I figured. I started talking to my buddy when there was a hideous shrieking. We look over to see Rock firmly planted on the screaming dog’s head! Rock had apparently went from truck to truck and tire to tire, waiting for an ambush. We were to stunned to do anything but stare. The dog shook him off and ran to his owner. Instead of running off and savoring his victory, Rock circled under the truck and prepared to attack again! I stamped my foot a few times and and he retreated to the other side of the bay and began cleaning himself.
He slashed the dog pretty well. No stitches, but he was bleeding and crying. I felt bad for the dog, but I had to admire the Rock. The dalmatian was about 5 times his size…
Once I came home from a walk and there was this critter under our deck, I had just taken the dog off the leash, and then this stupid cat bolts from under the deck and tries to get to the woods. My dog, (a Brittany) snatched that cat so fast I couldn’t believe it. It was like speed of light fast. The dog was a sweet thing, but had a real hunting instinct, and I think when he saw the flash of the moving critter he just went for it on automatic, not knowing it was a cat. He dropped it after one good bite, but based on the amount of blood, I don’t think the cat made it. Never found the body though. Anyway.
I have heard/read of reports of killer whales killing great white sharks, but haven’t seen the footage. I guess the whales just kill the sharks, but don’t eat them? I have seen the footage of killer whales playing with seals before they eat them. not much of a fight, that.
