The Chase – Level 3
“The chase and the cheap thrills don’t last long.”
Oooooo….now it’s going to start getting exciting….the chase! As agonism escalates the aggressor may chase its adversary at a gallop to displace he/she from the immediate area. This level can quickly escalate to the more exhilarating levels of agonism, for me anyone, maybe not so much for the wild ones involved. The chase was not hard to find pictures of!
All over the range, stallions running off stallions, mares chasing off mares, and in a reverse case, a stallion ‘leading’ another stallion away from his mares. So much fun to watch and it can go on for hours when a stallion is tenacious and truly wants a mare. In fact according to a USGS study, the chase behavior was documented to go on for over an hour and great distances! More often than not, this behavior is brief, lasting only a matter of seconds! Those cheap thrills don’t last long, be ready for them!
Oh and don’t get in their way, as some have discovered, ending up with broken body parts. Serious injury occurs when run over by these freight trains! So much more fun to watch from a distance because as you can see the one being chased can only think about how fast and how quick to get the heck out of Dodge!
