大象传媒

As wild dogs begin hunting on the African plains the gazelles do not simply run away. Instead, to deter their pursuers, the Thomson's gazelles do a stiff-legged bounding gait of high leaps called stotting. These extraordinary leaps are in fact a message which says in effect, "I'm too fast and strong for you to catch. Someone else would be an easier target". As the dogs rush across the plain, they choose which gazelle to go for on the basis of that information. These messages are truthful, for the frequency of a gazelles leap does indicate its strength and the dogs hardly ever select those that stot with vigour. Interestingly, the gazelles rarely stot when pursued by cheetah, for the cheetah selects it prey before the chase begins and catches it with a sprint. There's no time to send a message to this fast cat. But with dogs, it's different, dogs are not sprinters. They are long distance runners and they catch their victims by tiring them out.