What defences do animals like springbok have against predators?
Prey species are not totally defenceless, and they have several ways to protect themselves. The first is to try and spot the predator as early as possible to give the maximum possible time to escape. For this reason animals such a Springbok, Impala, Zebra, Wildebeest tend to stay together in large herds. The benefit of this is that with say 100 animals in the herd, there are 100 pairs of eyes looking for predators, so while a lone animal can only look in one direction at a time and has to look down when grazing, with a herd different animals will be looking in different directions at any time, so there is far less chance of a predator sneaking up unnoticed. Another benefit of being in a herd is that sheer force of numbers can sometimes drive a predator away, particularly a smaller predator like a cheetah, but a herd of angry buffalo can drive off lions. If a predator appears and escape is needed, then speed is important, but rather than just running in a straight line where a cheetah c
