frothingfash

“What do you mean Hippos are the most dangerous animal in Africa?! My creationist first grade teacher told me that herbivores are all weak little prey animals that exist to be eaten by big strong predators!”

    • HyonoKo@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      still manages to gargle Sure, not saying a gorilla isn’t strong. Just pointing out that the “chain” term in “food chain” refers to a concatenation of animals eating other animals.

      • WittyProfileName2 [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        The only natural predator of the gorilla is the leopard (some leopards have been seen preying on unguarded juvenile gorillas), so I guess technically whether or not gorillas are on the top of the food chain depends on their age.

        • Saeculum [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          The only natural predator of the gorilla is the leopard

          Sadly, humans presently and historically hunted gorillas for food as well, along with habiy destruction and hunting for sport it’s part of the reason they are so endangered, and has been one of the issues faced by conservationists.

      • Dirt_Owl [comrade/them, they/them]@hexbear.netOP
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        1 year ago

        Lol, yeah sorry, I guess I worded it too ambiguously. I was more mocking the idea of a food chain as a whole, with predators ‘on the top’, and the tendency to boil animal relationships down to “Strong eats weak”.

        It simplifies nature far too much and can lead to some pretty dumb social Darwinist thinking. Plus the food chain doesn’t even talk about animals that are neither predator nor prey.

      • booty [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        so what does the “food chain” have to do with anything? basically nobody fucks with gorillas at any point on the food chain. that’s the point.