Well, they are kind of solitary animals. No one will warn them about something big getting close from behind.
No living thing has a feature "to" do anything. That implies decision making, which is intelligent design.
Tigers have spots on their ears, which can confuse attackers.
Tigers did not develop those spots "to" confuse attackers.
All models are wrong, but some are useful. Thinking of evolved features as having a purpose is wrong, but it is also incredibly useful.
Why do we have eyes? In some sense, there is no reason, just a sequence of random coincidences, combined with a slightly non-randon bias refered to as "survival of the fittest" (itself an incorrect model).
However, saying that we have eyes to see has incredible explanatory power, which makes it a useful model. Just like Newton's law of Universal gravity. We've known it that is wrong for a century at this point, but most of the time still talk as if it's true, because it is useful.
I hear what you're saying, and you're 100% correct, but I think most people will realize it's a figure of speech, and easier to say than "Via the process of gene mutation trial and error over many, many generations of tigers, spots have developed on their ears that look like eyes, resulting in predation from behind being discourged."
One way of thinking of it could be that since all of our intention and decision making originates in such a process, the line between them isn't that clear.
Yes, they did though. That's the purpose of this evolutionary trait. I see what you're getting at, but you seem to be implying this was a concidence
The spots might be helpful for baby tigers?
Their predators are other tigers. There are tribes in Asia who wear masks on the backs of their heads with large eyes to deter tiger attacks. Apparently the tiger is very much about stabbing you in the back, and not so big on open confrontation.
Bigger, hornier tigers.
Tigers with horns 😨😨 ?
umm... hornier?
Wait until you learn about what dolphins sometimes do to their prey
Something respectful &/or cute I am sure
They boop them with their snoot.
Fun fact the South American short face bear is the only Ice aged giant that is thought not to be driven extinct by humans and fact humans could not hunt it, Tigers would be a pleasant snack for them.
Well that begs the question what the hell drove the short face bear to extinction? The long face bear?
Same thing that killed the humans, climate change.
You've never seen a mockingbird peck at a cat's butt all afternoon
Hippos
Look, I'm trying to lose the COVID weight, okay? Insults are unnecessary!
Not even on the same continent. Hippos are in Africa and Tigers are in Asia. Pretty big desert in between
This is the correct answer. Why are they so violent?
They've been bullied and fat-shamed their whole lives and they've had enough.
Incel hippos are jealous of good looking tigers getting laid
To make sure the tigers don't start getting any ideas
Herbivores have nothing to lose when hands need to be thrown.
Probably other tigers tbh
Yeah, predators get excited when you turn around and start moving away. These eyes are just asking "what are you doing step bro?".
To be fair, they can be fooled the same way.
in the Ganges Delta in India, where tigers living under protection in a reserve had been killing about 60 people a year.
Geez that's a lot.
I mean, deer kill about 400 people a year in the US and they aren't even trying. 280 million people live in the Delta alongside a predator that is actually trying to kill them, so it mkaes sense.
There's also a fuckton of deer and they're dumb as fuck.
Tigers are only CR4. There's lots of stuff more dangerous that that.
Yeah, you think you’re hot shit as a tiger and then here comes a Hellwasp…
Wild tigers, as apex predators, have few natural threats. Their primary competitors include Asiatic wild dogs (dholes), which can harass tigers in packs.
Who knew wild dogs could be such dholes
my new head canon is that tigers are so fed up with asiatic wild dogs that they started calling them d holes
I've heard of A-holes and B-holes, but the existence of D-holes and the implied C-holes is news to me.
Probably humans, given they went from 100k to 5.6k in population in 100 years and are still in decline.
Joe Exotic?
Do they have them when they are little too? Or maybe it worked out that it was less likely predators would yoink their babies because it seemed like they were always watching. Can't sneak up on someone with eyes on the back of their heads, that never close, even while sleeping.
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