How do common prey animals protect themselves at night in the wild?

Question

Since childhood I’ve come across Discovery/NatGeo videos of leopards chasing and lions attacking their prey in the day.

But isn’t it easier for predators to sneak up on sleeping herds of wildebeest in the night and do that regularly?

Is it common and just hard to film? Or is there some trick here which keeps sleeping herds safe?

In: 6

Answer 1

> Or is there some trick here which keeps sleeping herds safe?

Yes, the secret is not sleeping. Or rather, not sleeping all at once. One of the main benefits of a herd is that there are multiple animals which can be awake and alert while others sleep, so if a predator approaches the awake animals can wake up and warn the sleeping ones. Leopards and lions in fact do most of their hunting at night when as you suspected it is easier for them to sneak up on their prey. But again there are awake wildebeest keeping watch.