Chapter 821 Defeat
Unfortunately, although the Egyptian cobra is very powerful, its opponent is not easy to deal with. It is the king of birds - the North African ostrich.
Birds are the envy of all people and animals who long to fly into the blue sky.
Birds are the only animals on earth that are truly qualified to fly freely.
Not all birds are excellent flyers, but as the famous chicken soup article says, when God closes a door, he will definitely open a window.
"The ostrich is the largest of all birds, but unfortunately it only lives in Africa and its range of activities is too narrow. Otherwise, it would definitely win the title of the king of birds."
"They can't fly, but their fighting power on land is comparable to that of leopards!"
Bifang hid behind a rock, watching the confrontation between the bird and the snake, and made a shocking statement .
The audience was in an uproar.
[Fuck, is this true? Leopard?]
[Fang Shen, you are not kidding, right? ]
[Wouldn't this thing bury its head when it encounters danger? Scratching my head]
The ostrich has a large body and a thin neck, which is a huge weakness no matter how you look at it.
Think about the image of the leopard in your mind again. I'm afraid it wouldn't bite your neck off with one bite, right?
How to fight this?
In the eyes of most ordinary people, cats have always been the combat power ceiling of the animal kingdom. When they heard Bifang say this, they found it hard to accept it.
"You still don't understand. Leopards generally weigh between 100 and 200 kilograms, while ostriches can weigh more than 300 kilograms! That's already a huge win."
Bigger is better, bigger is stronger.
This statement is not absolutely correct in nature, but it is absolutely universal.
An ostrich can grow up to 1.5 meters tall, which is about the height of a 14-year-old boy.
And its means of attack come from pecking with the rafters and trampling and grabbing with its long claws. In terms of hard power, the lethality of ostriches is no less than that of hyenas and wolves.
At the same time, although the ostrich is heavy, its running speed is also one of the best in the animal kingdom.
The fastest running speed can reach 70km/h. Only the running speed of cheetahs, leopards and gazelles can match that of the ostrich. Moreover, to be able to run so fast, its strength is also not weak. The most important thing is that its pair of long legs can cause powerful damage to the enemy.
In addition, ostriches have a fierce personality and are often not easily provoked. They are revengeful creatures and will often quickly launch an offensive when threatened. This is different from wild animals such as antelopes and zebras, which are much stronger.
It can also be seen from this that the ostrich is able to survive because of its own strength.
In this part of Africa, even younger female lions are no match for ostriches in terms of combat effectiveness.
The ostrich's condescending attitude exerts a certain degree of suppression on the lion. Therefore, the ostrich is also a member of the top of the African food chain, and its strength should not be underestimated.
Especially to reptiles and snakes, ostriches are god-like.
Because of this, the ostrich, as an omnivore, has a large number of reptiles on its diet, including snakes. However, it is relatively rare for it to take the initiative to deal with a cobra of such a large size.
Bifang spoke very quickly about some characteristics of ostriches, and after listing all the facts, the audience had to be skeptical.
After all, the distance is far, and the ostrich photographed at this time has no specific reference object, and there is no sense of oppression in terms of its body shape, so it is normal to have such doubts.
[So, Cobra is doomed to fail? ]
[It’s hard to say, I think it might fail.]
"That's true. In nature, there is no such thing as..." Bifang wanted to say something else, but soon stopped talking and shouted to remind the audience, "Look, they are fighting!"
The camera automatically zoomed in and focused, and the audience immediately stopped the comments they were about to send.
In the canyon, the bird and the snake that were originally in confrontation have turned from confrontation to mutual testing.
The ostrich's most powerful weapon is its feet, so its probing move is naturally a simple kick. Perhaps because the force is too great, the audience can't see the moment when it kicks out, and they just feel like a few afterimages pass by.
The Egyptian cobra was obviously a subspecies. It was pitch black and looked mighty and domineering. It did not lose momentum to the ostrich, but it was much shorter. Facing the ostrich's temptation, it could only move backwards while looking for an opportunity. Its pair of snake eyes stared at the ostrich, and the frequency of its spitting out its tongue increased significantly.
Although he wore a pair of glasses, Cobra still could not deny the fact that he was nearsighted.
All snakes are nearsighted. Most snakes can only see things within 1 meter. Moreover, snakes' eyeballs cannot move like the eyeballs of most animals, which results in a very small visual range.
In addition, there is no optic fossa behind the snake's eyeball, which is the most sensitive area for visual perception. Therefore, snakes not only cannot see things clearly, but also have a very poor ability to detect stationary objects.
This is just the case for most snakes. Although the cobra is very nearsighted, it is considered good. Some snakes in the family Colubridae either live in water or in burrows, and their vision is even more severely degraded.
The hook-necked blind snake lives underground all its life, and its eyes have degenerated into two small black dots. It has only weak light sensitivity and almost no vision.
But the cobra has a very powerful organ for searching prey, which is the tongue, also known as the snake's fang.
"Snakes in the cobra family use their tongues to collect scent particles in the air and use the scent particles to determine the location and type of prey."
During the brief confrontation, Bifang spoke quickly and his voice unconsciously became much louder.
He was not afraid that ostriches and cobras would hear him and run away.
Once animals start hunting or fighting, they pay very little attention to the outside world, especially stationary objects. As long as they don't jump in front of their eyes, they basically won't notice them and will assume that it is a natural environment.
For example, once a pack of wolves starts chasing a fleeing antelope, even if a motionless rabbit passes by them, it will not attract their attention, but may even escape by chance.
Of course, if it moves, that’s another story.
After probing for dozens of seconds, the battle soon became fierce.
The ostrich was obviously much bolder and began to attack more frequently, but this also allowed the cobra to see more clearly.
The audience couldn't help but hold their breath.
Finally, the ostrich's attack hit the cobra's tail. Almost immediately, the cobra's flesh and blood exploded, splashing a pool of blood on the rocks nearby.
Is it ending?
Most of the audience don't have a good impression of snakes, so they didn't think there was anything wrong with seeing the cobra lose.
But at this moment, something strange happened!
The cobra, with half of its body almost broken, suddenly jumped up, bit the neck of the ostrich that was about to lower its head to tear it apart, and then quickly coiled around it!
Bifang couldn't help but let out a cry of surprise.
This can be counterattack?
Looking at the half of the snake's tail that was still swinging on the ground, everyone felt a little absurd.
It is normal for an ostrich to kill a cobra, even though the Egyptian cobra is one of the most venomous snakes in the world and is extremely huge in size.
There is no small one in the cobra family, and it is highly venomous, making it a species with considerable advantages.
Those that are more poisonous than it are not as big as it.
Those that are bigger than it don't have as toxic venom.
Venomous snakes generally prey on smaller creatures and rarely use entanglement, but not using the method doesn't mean they can't do it.
Facing the ostrich, the seriously injured cobra obviously did not dare to be careless. It injected toxins madly and wrapped the ostrich's neck tightly, like a black scarf, but this scarf was very scary.
Bifang licked the corner of his mouth, feeling very excited. Although he was just watching the show from the side, this rare counterattack scene was still extremely rare.
With such short vision, it is difficult for the cobra to keep up with the attack speed of the ostrich. This time, it was able to bite the vital point with one bite, which was completely a blind cat catching a dead mouse.
As an explorer of nature, Bifang has a deep knowledge of all kinds of animals and loves them very much. He is naturally happy to see such a scene.
"The ostrich's neck is very fragile because both the bones and muscles of the ostrich's neck focus on flexibility and are not very strong. However, the legs are extremely strong, and the muscles on the femur and fibula are extremely developed."
"If it was bitten on the leg, it might not be a big deal, but if it was bitten on the neck, the ostrich would probably not survive."
"only……"
【Just what】
【Quickly say】
Bifang stared at the remaining half of the snake's body on the ground. It was not short at all, almost one third, and completely exceeded the tail.
"It's hard for this cobra to survive."
"If only the tail was broken, the chances of survival would still be quite high, and he might have some disabilities. But now that it's so long, his internal organs may have been damaged. Add to that the infection and deterioration of the natural environment..."
Even for animals, infection can be fatal.
The ostrich had already started to react almost before Bifang had finished speaking. At first, it was bitten and shook its head and flapped its wings wildly, but it was all in vain.
Being so close to the head, the venom took effect quickly, causing the ostrich to become dizzy and eventually fall to the ground. Its huge body even raised a cloud of dust.
The cobra that fell to the ground did not stay for long. After killing the ostrich, it immediately loosened its body and fled out of the canyon without even taking the trophy.
Bifang then walked out from behind the boulder, looked at the bloodstains on the ground, and shook his head.
The bloodstain was not long. Snakes have well-developed muscles and are able to stop bleeding on their own. Moreover, the ground was covered with gravel, which helped to stop bleeding if it got contaminated.
The ostrich on the ground was still struggling and flapping its wings, but unfortunately it was undoubtedly a last gasp.
Given the amount of venom in the cobra, it would be almost impossible for the huge ostrich to survive.
【Eye-opening】
【Diablo】
[I thought ostriches would just bury their heads when in danger, but I didn’t expect them to be so fierce, even though they died (dog head)]
"The ostrich is buried in this, it's actually a rumor."
Bifang shook his head.
"Many people believe that when an ostrich is frightened it will bury its head in the sand to escape danger. This has led to the idiom 'ostrich policy', but this is actually incorrect."
"The ostrich as a symbol of stupidity was recorded as early as the Old Testament of the Bible: 'Is the ostrich's wings flapping in joy a sign of its feathers and pinions? ... Because God has deprived it of wisdom and has not given it understanding. When it stands up and spreads its wings, it laughs at the horse and its rider.'"
"But the first person to write down this rumor and clearly describe the ostrich's behavior was the Roman thinker Pliny the Elder, who lived from 23 to 79 AD."
"Pliny was writing in his natural history that ostriches think that when they stick their heads and necks into the bushes, their bodies are hidden with them."
"Although it's similar, it's also quite different from burying your head. Later, I don't know how it evolved into an ostrich burying its head in the sand."
"But this is totally impossible. Most birds have nostrils at the base of their beaks. Birds like the kiwi, which can only rely on smell to find food, have to have their nostrils at the front of their beaks. After they stick their noses into the mud to find food, they have to spray their nostrils hard to remove the debris that hinders their breathing."
"If an ostrich buries its head, it will suffocate to death."
"As for why this rumor came about, it's probably because the ostrich's head is very small compared to its body, so if the ostrich's head is close to the ground, it could be mistaken for being buried in the sand. It's easy to be misunderstood."
In fact, if an ostrich encounters an enemy, the first thing it does is run.
Although the ostrich belongs to the class Aves, it no longer has the ability to fly.
Birds' bones are strong, thin and light. The long bones are filled with air. All the bone fragments of the skull are completely fused. The thoracic vertebrae and lumbar vertebrae, sacral vertebrae and coccygeal vertebrae are fused together, and the sacral vertebrae and left and right pelvic girdle are also fused together.
There are hook-like protrusions on the ribs, which hook into each other to form a solid thorax.
Flying birds also have a triangular keel protrusion on the sternum to increase the attachment area of the pectoral muscles and vibrating wing muscles.
These unique structures of bird bones reduce weight and enhance the ability to support flight.
But this is obviously not the case with ostriches.
As the largest modern bird in the world, the male ostrich is generally more than 2 meters tall and weighs about 150 kilograms, but the feathers all over its body are soft.
The wings of ostriches are specialized, and there are no hooks between the filaments of the feathers, so they cannot form a complete feather with flight function, so they can only stay on land.
If you don't look carefully, you might even mistakenly think it has no wings.
In addition, it has a flat sternum and underdeveloped chest muscles. However, although it cannot be used for flying, its feathers still have basic functions of keeping warm and dissipating heat, and can also help change the direction of travel when running.
Bifang squatted on the ground.
At this time, the ostrich was completely motionless. He poked it with a stick, but there was no response.
Completely dead.
This also allowed Bifang to reach out and touch the dead ostrich with confidence.
"Many wrong conclusions are caused by insufficient observation, and ostriches are no exception."
"They have been misunderstood for more than 2,000 years. Even though more and more people know the truth, they cannot resist the widespread spread of the saying 'stupid as an ostrich'."
"But, having said all that, maybe one day these sayings will become 'as strong as an ostrich'."
Bifang smiled, paused, and then added.
"If there were still ostriches then."
