15. THE HERD AND ITS ENEMIES 



THE grass eaters and the leaf eaters, being primary 

 animals, are naturally the most numerous. The grass 

 and the leaf eaters, in turn, constitute the food for the 

 flesh eaters. 



At first thought, it would seem that the flesh eaters would 

 tend to exterminate the grass and the leaf eaters, but on 

 closer analysis we find that the flesh eaters help the grass 

 eaters to survive. The most deadly foe of all animals is 

 bacteria. Are the flesh eaters not collaborating with the 

 bacteria to kill off and exterminate the grass eaters ? Just 

 the opposite appears to be true, for bacteria can do little 

 against animals in vigorous health. Like the bacteria, the 

 carnivores kill the enfeebled and hence keep the herd in 

 high vigor. Thus we see a benevolence in the destruction 

 by the carnivores of the menace of the weak. 



But why do the lions, the wolves, the leopards, the foxes 

 not completely exterminate the grass and the leaf eaters ? 

 Since the weaker members of the herds are destroyed, the 

 grass and the leaf eaters, by breeding from fitness, are kept 

 at the highest possible level of energy, making it continu- 

 ously more difficult for the wolves, the lions, the leopards, 

 and the wild dogs to take the keen-sensed and fleet-footed 

 food. As a lion or a wild dog ages, there is no dole for him. 

 He dies undefended. The hyena attends to his needs. 



In order to survive, the grass eaters live in herds. The 

 lone animal would perish. Even the newborn must keep up 

 with the herd. Those that multiply are not only the fit but 

 the most fit, for the males compete, often to death, for the 

 post of leader of the herd. In this final fight for procreation, 

 an antagonist less than perfectly brave, with a horn the 

 least bit weaker or shorter or a bit more brittle, may leave 

 no progeny. Thus the herd is afforded the protection of its 

 ablest member, and leadership in the herd is a function of 



