托福口语 Task 4

Today we're going to talk about a fascinating behavior in the animal kingdom: cooperative hunting. While many animals hunt alone, some species have evolved to hunt in groups, which can greatly increase their success rate. Let me give you two examples to illustrate this. First, consider the African lion. Lions live in prides and work together to bring down large prey like zebras or wildebeests. In a group, some lions act as 'wingers' to chase the prey toward the center, while others, the 'center' individuals, ambush and strike. This coordinated effort allows them to capture animals that would be too fast or too powerful for a single lion to catch alone. Second, think about orcas, or killer whales. In the waters off Norway, orcas hunt herring by working in pods. They use a technique called 'carousel feeding': they swim in a circle around a school of herring, creating a 'wall' of bubbles and noise that forces the fish into a tight ball. Then, they take turns swimming through the ball and stunning the fish with their tails. This way, each orca gets to eat without exhausting itself chasing individual fish. So, in both cases, cooperation enables these predators to catch prey that would be otherwise difficult or impossible to obtain alone.