托福口语 Task 4

Today we're going to talk about a fascinating behavior in the animal kingdom: cooperative hunting. Some animals hunt together in groups to catch prey that would be impossible for a single individual. This strategy often involves complex coordination and role specialization. Let me give you two examples. First, consider the orca, or killer whale. Orcas hunt in pods, and they use a technique called 'carousel feeding' to catch herring. In this method, a group of orcas works together to herd a large school of herring into a tight ball near the surface. Then, one whale slaps the ball with its tail, stunning many fish at once, and all members take turns feeding. This allows them to catch far more fish than any one whale could catch alone. Second, think of the African lion. Lionesses in a pride hunt cooperatively, often targeting large prey like wildebeest or zebra. They use a coordinated ambush: some lionesses act as 'wingers' to drive the prey toward the center, while others, the 'centers', wait hidden in the grass to launch a surprise attack. This division of labor increases the success rate dramatically compared to hunting individually, which is rarely successful for such fast and powerful prey.