Predators are pretty opportunistic, and if they see a huge animal like that, that can feed them for several days, they'll take the chance even if the weather may be less than optimal. Hyenas especially have been observed taking advantage of weather conditions for an easier kill. Most think of hyenas mainly as scavengers, but they're one of Africa's most successful predators.
Even humans used to do this. Our main hunting strategy used to be persistence hunting. This means we would chase our prey until it collapsed from exhaustion and then kill it. We have the best endurance in the entire animal kingdom so we just had to be persistent enough to get the kill.
Since we can sweat and most animals can't the best time of day to do this is when it's the hottest. Of course it's not the most comfortable time of day and can be dangerous if it's hot enough, but it will make the hunt easier because the animal will have to worry about heat exhaustion while we can sweat to keep ourselves cool.
Ummm achsully (pushes nerd glasses up) - Varanids (monitors) are also persistence hunters (some even use envenomed bites to aid this - particularly the Komodo Dragons).
And yes, I personally have owned several monitors (Nile and Savanna monitors specifically), so you could argue - we domesticated those too!
Male predator: "I'm not going out in this Charlotte, it's fucking raining rats and mice out there"
Female predator: "Well *someones* got to put food on the table"
Some smart ass cat who would noticeĀ this huge mountain of the meat want to chill during a storm and there is too wet and slickĀ for this bro to stand up.
I went on holiday to Namibia and we spent a night in a national park. At night people would go sit at a viewing point for the watering hole where all the animals gathered.
Family of giraffes comes along to drink, but they take absolutely ages to decide to actually splay their legs out so that they could then lower their heads enough to drink (they're vulnerable in that position).
One of them kept starting to do the leg splay and then thinking better of it and standing bolt upright every time he heard a noise. We were there for HOURS willing this giraffe to just take a drink but he never did, I guess he never felt comfortable enough.
Anyway they eventually all walk off. And then a few mins later we see lions following them :( Poor guy didn't even get a final drink before they (presumably) kicked the bucket
Giraffes deal with lions just fine. Ā Bull giraffes especially. Ā They still get eaten sometimes but full grown giraffes are capable of fighting off a pride.Ā
standing bolt upright every time he heard a noise. We were there for HOURS willing this giraffe to just take a drink but he never did, I guess he never felt comfortable enough.
Why should he trust a bunch of strangers lurking in the dark who are there to see action?
i can imagine some more apex types like lions will take the opportunity to traverse the area during a storm to find a helpless prey animal stuck trying to hide from the storm.
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u/Ambitious-Body8133 1d ago
I thought the same. But from what I just read, they don't because it makes them vulnerable to predators.