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“They are more afraid of you than you are afraid of them” is a saying that is often used to reassure hikers that even large predators, such as bear and puma, pose little threat to us. But humans are slower and weaker than these animals, so what’s stopping these beasts from munching on every piece of clothing? monkey they meet?
There are a few likely reasons they don’t attack more often. Looking at our physiology, humans have evolved to become bipedal – moving from moving with all four limbs to walking standing on longer legs, according to John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“There is a level of threat that comes from being bipedal,” Hawks told Live Science. “And when we look at other primates – chimpanzees, gorillas, for example – they stand up to express threats. Getting bigger in appearance is threatening, and it’s a very easy way to communicate to predators that you are a problem. ”
Related: How many primitive human species existed on Earth?
Bipedalism can make humans appear larger and therefore more threatening to other species, but it also has its downsides. It’s generally slower to move on two legs than on four, which means humans have given up on any excuse to outrun any four-legged creature, according to Hawks.
“It’s kind of like a bluff,” Hawks said. “It’s like, ‘I’m walking around; I’m tough; I show where I am in a landscape.'” Predators see the upright position and assume humans are tougher than we actually are, according to Hawks. However, even if they called our bipedal bluff, predators have other reasons to leave us alone.
How common are wild animal attacks?
A 2019 study published in the journal Human-Wildlife Interactions found that about eight people die each year in the United States from wildlife attacks, and most of those deaths are due to bites from poisonous snakes.
Large primates, such as humans and chimpanzees, live in groups and have adopted the strategy of aggressively defending themselves against threats, which generally works against predators, Hawks said. So being social has helped us stay safe, as well as the benefits of bipedalism.
As human technology progressed, we developed an arsenal of advanced weapons, such as bows and rifles, that could be used from a distance. With these weapons, humans became so deadly that they began to fight predators.
Another reason humans are rarely attacked by large wild animals is that their numbers have declined. “We’ve been trying for a very long time to clean the landscape we use from top predators,” said Justin Suraci, senior scientist in community ecology and conservation biology at Conservation Science Partners, a California-based nonprofit science organization. Live Science.
Large predators and their habitats suffered heavy losses in the United States before and during the 20th century, before the passage of the Endangered Species Act 1973, Suraci noted. For example, humans hunted, trapped and poisoned wolves (Canis lupus) near extinction, Previously reported live science, and pumas (Puma concolor) have been wiped out from the entire eastern half of North America, with the exception of a small population in Florida, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Related: What is the first species that humans led to extinction?
Predators living in other heavily populated areas of humans have faced similar problems. According to Suraci, animals that have escaped human threat have probably learned to grow weary of our species. “For very logical reasons, some of these large predators have a healthy fear of humans in the same way that any species of prey would fear its predators,” Suraci said.
In a 2019 study published in the journal Ecology letters, Suraci and his colleagues played recordings of human voices through remote speakers in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. The study found that the noise of humans talking was enough to scare away pumas and several small predators, such as bobcats (Lynx rufus).
The recordings were designed to simulate mild conversation and consisted primarily of Suraci and his friends reciting poetry and passages from books. The effect was so strong that the recordings had an effect similar to completely removing predators from an ecosystem, with reduced predator activity allowing potential small prey animals, such as mice, to feed more than they did. they normally wouldn’t.
Suraci believes that this fear predators have of humans could also have an advantage: it could help prevent conflict between humans and wildlife. Large predators need a lot of space, and in a world dominated by humans, they need to be able to live alongside humans without conflict.
“The fear of humans that many of these predators display is really positive in this regard,” Suraci said. “It gives us the opportunity to potentially share spaces with these animals – to hike in places where pumas, bears and wolves exist, without being negatively impacted.”
In other words, the “healthy fear” of wild predators of humans can help us coexist, “as long as we are aware of their presence,” Suraci said. Indeed, it is important to be smart when hiking in areas where large predators live. For example, in bear country, people should walk in groups and periodically shout “Hey bears”, to give animals time to leave the area before a meeting. Previously reported live science.
Originally posted on Live Science.
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