Big cats in evolutionary arms race with prey: study

PARIS: Lions and cheetah are faster, stronger and no less agile than their prey, but zebras and impalas compensate with a surprising tactic, researchers said Wednesday: slow down, and keep the big cats guessing. Indeed, fleeing at top speed is a fatal mistake, making it easier for the fearsome felines to close in for the kill, they reported in the journal Nature. “If the prey is running flat out, it cannot speed up and its movements become predictable,” lead author Alan Wilson, said. “Lower-speed hunts favour prey survival, because it gives the animals the opportunity to manoeuvre.” The proof is in the kill rate: lions (which hunt zebra) and cheetah (which target impalas) fail two out of three times when they give chase. Over the course of more than 5,500 high-speed runs, the collars recorded location, speed, acceleration, number of steps, and ability to turn several times a second, yielding an unprecedented trove of information. Lions and cheetah, they found, were significantly more athletic than their prey: 38 percent faster, 37 percent better at accelerating, and 72 percent better at slowing down quickly. Their muscles were also 20 percent more powerful.