In the face of the sprint champion of land mammals, how do antelopes generally escape?

Imagine one day you accidentally cross into a highhorn and look blankly at the savanna around you. Suddenly, in your ultra-wide field of vision, a cheetah that has been sneaking for a long time leaps up from not far away and rushes towards you at lightning speed. What should you do at this time?

In a life-or-death situation, you may think of running with all your might. After thousands of years of evolution, you are a pair of rivals, knocking out each other's individuals who are not fast enough in each other's populations, and gradually adapting to the survival needs of high-speed running. But in this textbook arms race, you're facing a land mammal sprinter, what strategy should you use to survive?

Scientists led by Alan Wilson of the Royal Veterinary College of the United Kingdom studied this issue very seriously in the predatory relationship between cheetah-highhorn and lion-zebra [1], and the results were both surprising and plausible – neither the predator nor the ** eater were running at full speed.

In order to establish a quantitative model of the hunting process, the researchers put on collars equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) and accelerometers on both predators and eaters, and after observing thousands of hunting processes, they obtained the speed, acceleration and trajectory information of each step in the running process. In addition, the researchers sampled muscle fibers from each individual with a collar to determine the strength of the biceps femoris muscle, which plays a major role during running.

Muscle fibers are generally divided into fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscles, with the latter contracting more slowly, producing less pulling force, but also consuming less energy [2]. For herbivores such as zebras and high-horned antelopes, the energy content of the food is relatively low, and the use of slow muscle is a strategy to maintain a balance between avoiding predation and conserving physical energy [3]. If we look at the fast-twitch fibers that contribute the most to high-speed movement, although the muscles of the four species contract at similar rates, the muscle fibers of lions and cheetahs can produce 20% more pulling force than their respective prey[1], giving them a slight upper hand in this arms race.

The highhorns all chose to shake off the hunter by making a sudden turn. In this way, maintaining a lower speed can make the zebra and highhorn swerving range larger, the route more difficult**, and the big cat will have to slow down so as not to be thrown off by the prey with sharp turns.

Sprint champion, then you can always look at it, don't stop, keep running.

They all run in dispersion, and running in different directions is more likely to confuse the enemy.

Most of the antelopes flee separately, and after they have escaped danger, they join together.

Antelope excellent speed, and cooperation with partners.

Antelopes are generally in groups, scattering and fleeing.

Antelopes have horns that they can use to defend against leopards.

They all run away separately, and then reunite after avoiding danger.

They will take the more difficult roads that the leopard can't.

A herd of antelopes will scatter and flee.

When the cheetah chases the sheep, its body temperature will rise, and it will die if it exceeds a certain temperature, so if it can't chase it within a certain period of time, it will give up.

Cheetah's explosiveness is good, but its stamina is not good. The energy substance adenosine triphosphate accumulated in the body is difficult to recover in a short time, so it is consumed too quickly and cannot be maintained for a long time.

Cheetahs are the fastest animals on land, reaching speeds of up to 120 km/h, and the acceleration is also very impressive, with an adult cheetah being measured to reach speeds of up to 100 km/h in less than 2 seconds.

However, it has poor stamina and cannot chase its prey for long periods of time, and if the cheetah cannot catch its prey at short distances, it will give up and wait for the next sortie.

Well, how to say pinch, cheetahs sometimes can't catch up with antelopes, we can think like this, cheetahs chase antelopes just to be able to eat it, even if they can't eat it, they won't die, but antelopes don't think so, if I am chased, my life is difficult to save, antelopes are to run with their lives, and career cheetahs sometimes can't catch up with antelopes.

Because although the cheetah is very fast at the beginning, its fast speed can only be very short, only a few points, if you don't catch the antelope within a few minutes, it will be out of gas, plus the antelope is running for its life, it can hold on for a long time, so the cheetah sometimes can't catch up with the antelope.

Because of cheetahs.

Bai is the sprint champion of the animal kingdom, although it runs so fast, but zhi, it uses this speed to run three or four.

100 meters, it will be out of breath and slow down, and the antelope is the champion of long-distance running, it can run a long distance at a speed of 90 kilometers. Therefore, when the cheetah pursues the antelope, if it has not caught up after a short distance, the cheetah itself will give up.

Because the cheetah is fast at the beginning, it is faster.

It's a pity that I have decades of experience in being chased.

You can see how important experience is.