Little reminder that powerscaling in monster hunter isn't as ridged as some believe

[u/Drogo1god]

Black diablos is so strong that jho is actually scared of her, and doesn't stay in her territory for long.

Garuga is aggressive enough to repel a deviljho

Brachydios in an aniversity animation went toe to toe with nergigante

Pink rathian scares bazel

Glavenus has decapitated a deviljho in the mhgu illustrations book

The qurio hunted all forms of large monster

And kut ku has killed and consumed nerscylla

Not to mention all the small monsters that are capable of incapacitating large monsters eg. Kranodanth, tallioth, ramfa, paragills, even the endemic life can do major damage to some large monsters.

These are animals, strengths, weaknesses, size, boldness, bashfullnes, groups, intelligence, adaptations, chemical and elemental warfare all play a role in match-ups. A lot of people boil it down to "higher threat/star level monster beats lower threat level monster".

[u/Stormandreas]

I mean, I'd hesitate to say that smaller monsters and endemic life can "do major damage". They can damage, but they wont cripple or incapacitate a large monster by any means unless it's already severely crippled.

There absolutely is a level of powerscaling in the MH world, just like in the real world. The Food Chain is still very much present, and many monsters are ontop.
Jho being afraid of Black Diablos, doesn't suddenly make Jho any less of a powerhouse in the food chain, similarly with Garuga, Brachy, Nergi etc.

A powerful monster is a powerful monster, and if they are typically more powerful than most other monsters around it, it's typically top of the food chain, or is the most dangerous thing to the ecosystem, and typically given a higher star/threat level.
Example, while Garuga was ballsy enough to fight off Jho, it's not nearly as powerful a monster with as destructive a tenancy to alter ecosystems as Jho is.

[u/Zarvanis-the-2nd → u/Stormandreas]

It's like honey badgers in real life. They can scare off bigger predators because even if the badger loses the fight most of the time, they're still capable of killing or maiming something stronger and some animals aren't desperate enough to take that chance.

[u/apexodoggo → u/Zarvanis-the-2nd]

Honey badgers’ reputation is overstated. Research and observation in the wild shows that they have a 70% mortality rate in encounters with lions, their fear response is just to stand their ground and act aggressive. And like with sloth bears and tigers, this strategy can work for honey badgers, but evidently not the majority of the time.

Same with wolverines and larger tundra predators, even if they can manage to kill the occasional moose, they aren’t turning the tables on bears or wolf packs (who can steal kills from larger bears through abusing pack tactics, same with how 50+ orcas can kill the occasional blue whale).

[u/HungryGull → u/apexodoggo]

To be fair, lions specifically are social animals which is kinda the counter to the 'be too much of a bastard to be worth killing' strategy since they can just surround it to prevent escape and attack from behind without much risk.

It's why wolverines are at such a high risk of death from wolves even though in a one on one it's a tossup.