ngtm1r wrote:It's because we're easy to kill.

Eh, I doubt that's the reason. This doesn't explain why they suddenly lose their fear of humans, even when facing considerable opposition.

In other words, the first human might be easy to kill, but then all his friends hear about it and get angry. And yet the animal persists.

And nutrious.

Uh, no. We're at the top of the food chain. We've used up nearly all the nutrients available.

This is why sci-fi stories about aliens needing people for food are so silly. They'd be much better off herding cows, which are strict herbivores and offer little resistance.

Invasion of the Cow Body Snatchers doesn't really have the same ring to it.....

Besides, cows tend to explode in the tractor beam

Goober5000 wrote:

ngtm1r wrote:It's because we're easy to kill.

Eh, I doubt that's the reason. This doesn't explain why they suddenly lose their fear of humans, even when facing considerable opposition.

In other words, the first human might be easy to kill, but then all his friends hear about it and get angry. And yet the animal persists.

Exactly. Most predators act all scared of humans the whole time until they first kill one and then they keep on doing it. And it's not like we're that easy prey. Very few predators ever manage to eat more than one person without being tracked down and killed for their crime these days.

I think that one individual human is easy prey, we rely on brains and teamwork to achieve our goals. An individual human is a pretty weak, slow member of the Animal kingdom compared to other creatures of the same size, however, as a group we possess the ability to make ourselves more deadly than any other on the planet.

Even on our own a single human is likely to be dangerous as whenever we're somewhere that a large predatory animal can get to us we are also likely to be armed too.

Even if you're talking about evolutionary timescales a human with a spear is at least as dangerous as whatever the animal usually eats.

Okay, if you want to play it that way how many surfers are carrying spearguns? How many campers are armed? How many trailrunners pack a rifle?

Not many.

It is because we're easy to kill. As a practical matter, too, they'll kill more than one person before they get hunted down, assuming they are at all. It's simply not feasible to track the animal down most of the time.

We also have relatively poor eyesight, smell and hearing (at least one of the three) compared to most predators, I believe. And a fairly soft hide with no natural defenses, plus often physically weaker and slower.

What I'm wondering is, exactly when do animals lose all fear "even when facing considerable opposition"? What exactly is the opposition, and what are the circumstances? Because if you place an animal in an inescapable position, it's fight - not flight - that will take hold. And we're usually pretty good (humans) at co-ordinated hunting, so I'd imagine that the contact would come either when a hunt traps the animal (fooling it into believing there are less people hunting it) or encirciles it (i.e. forces it into a defensive-aggressive mode).

I'm good with smell

Wild Fragaria wrote:I'm good with smell

Ah, but that's because you're wild

Aaarrroooooooooooo!!!!

I'm wild

Wild Fragaria wrote:Aaarrroooooooooooo!!!!

I'm wild

That smiley looks oddly like panting, doesn't it?

Slap me with a wet Haddock if I am wrong, but I think this is the largest thread in the history of SG 'Chatter' Maybe in the whole history of SG.

(Ready and wetten your Haddocks, I have not bothered to check).

No, this is at about number 10. Four of the biggest threads in the Chatter section are:

http://www.sectorgame.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=848

http://www.sectorgame.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1116

http://www.sectorgame.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1360

http://www.sectorgame.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1921

And guess what. Every one of them is about HLP. Those guys get a lot of complaints huh?