托福口语 Task 4

Today, we're going to talk about a fascinating concept in animal behavior called 'cooperative hunting.' Now, this isn't just about animals working together; it's about a specific strategy where individuals coordinate their actions to catch prey that would be impossible to catch alone. The main point I want to emphasize is that cooperative hunting evolves when the benefits of group effort—like a higher success rate or access to larger prey—outweigh the costs, such as sharing the catch or increased competition. Let me give you two examples. First, consider the lioness in the African savanna. Lions hunt in prides, and the females work in groups to surround and ambush large herbivores like wildebeests. A single lioness would rarely succeed in taking down such a fast and powerful animal, but by coordinating—some driving the prey toward others hiding in ambush—they achieve a much higher success rate. This cooperation is worth the cost of sharing the meat, because otherwise they might starve. Second, think about bottlenose dolphins off the coast of Florida. They use a technique called 'mud-ring feeding.' One dolphin swims in a circle around a school of fish, stirring up mud with its tail to create a ring that traps the fish. Then, other dolphins take turns swimming through the ring to catch the disoriented fish. This requires precise timing and role differentiation, but it allows the dolphins to capture a large number of fish at once—something an individual dolphin couldn't do by itself. So, in both cases, the key is that cooperation provides a significant advantage that justifies the costs.