19 replies to this topic

[BigshotHeavyhitter]

I am not a scientist. I am a writer.  I hope this forum can help me identify some animals that would "win" in a "fight" with an unarmed male human being of average height and weight a certain percentage of the time.  As follows:

Please list animals that would "win" approximately 1 out of 10 times they "fought" an unarmed human being.

More detail:  The male human being is physically and mentally "average," not "super-strong" or "super-smart," but also not "super-weak" or "super-dumb."  He can use elements in the environment to "win."  However, imagine the fight takes place in nature, say, a desert environment where any elements in the environment are not going to give the human a huge advantage.  The human might find sticks and rocks, but not much more.  

While this is possibly the least scientific question posted here, it is serious and would be a big help for me on my current project.

Thanks!

[pito]

Eum, there are many animals that would win....

A lion for example
other catlike animals have less change , but a lion is very strong and uses his power (more then speed and biteforce) to win.

a cougar for example is less strong, but faster, but there is a change you could beat it down.. A lion , forget it, if he puts his power in his legs and pushes you...

Another example: hippos.. they kill more people then you think.. they are very dangerous...


Weird question anyway.

[hobglobin]

Larger apes and wolf/cougar/leopard perhaps (apes such as chimps are much stronger and have a strong set of teeth, but normally won't feed on humans, but can attack because of territory or hierarchy issues; wolf and similar sized predators have a minor chance, but sometimes it might work). I guess most really large cats (i.e. tiger, lion) and bears such as grizzly will have a high chance (9-10/10), if they really want.
Anyway humans always can try to scare off the animals, this can work but not always, depending on hunger of the opponent and measures. I.e. predators are opportunists, and it's a trade-off between need for food and danger to be injured by the prey. So if they really need food they're much more aggressive and approach larger prey, if they're not very hungry they won't take the risk to attack a similar sized prey, and if they're full, there's no interest at all. And that's true for most predators, even tigers.

[Fungus_Dreams]

lol. Probably just about any animal the size of a police dog or larger.

Humans have powerful brains, but that's about it.

[pito]

I forgot to mention this, but the only known mammal that activly hunt people are polar bears.

(by this I mean: they see people as preys, food)

Edited by pito, 19 May 2011 - 10:58 AM.

[hobglobin]

But tigers and lions, too. And the countries where they occur have higher population densities, making an encounter much more probable.

[pito]

hobglobin, on 19 May 2011 - 12:00 PM, said:

But tigers and lions, too. And the countries where they occur have higher population densities, making an encounter much more probable.

Well,I was always told that lions and tigers will attack less then polar bears and if the attack its more to defend themself rather than they see you as a meal.

[hobglobin]

I just skimmed over the wikipedia texts as I remembered the film "The Ghost and the Darkness". I guess it's not really common, but if you read wikipedia it's surprisingly much killing. Partly because the countries (African and India) have a compared to Arctic regions high population density (humans) and partly because game became rare there.
But I guess except these notorious maneaters as described in a few lions and tigers (and polar bears?), no animal actively only hunts humans, but they take them if they have the opportunity.

[pito]

But if you speak about africa, then you need to mention hippos for sure, because they kill more people that lions or any other animal out there.. altough, hippos wont eat people, they just kill them.

All I remember from courses on mammals/bears etc is that polar bears would for sure see a human as a potential meal while other animals would not do this very fast.
(but then again: how do prove stuff like this? If a lion kills/attacks a human and eats it partly... )

Also many stories about lions killing people is often the result of people closing in the territory if the lions for example.
(a famous story is that of an ape in africa that killed 10+ people... )

[hobglobin]

Yes hippos kill a lot of people, but they don't hunt, isn't it their (violent) territorial behaviour?
And polar bears, perhaps it's because they have to check out every possible prey they notice, because the prey number is anyway not that large, whereas a lion or tiger usually always finds prey...
And your last sentence I didn't get.

[pito]

Hippos do kill people for territorial behaviour yes.

There is a famous story about an ape that killed more then 10 people in a little town in africa.. however I forget the details about the story (cant remember where). The ape even had his own name and they hunted for the ape for months.... after a half year finally they managed to get it... but the ape allready killed more then 10 people.
There is also a documentary about this story..  but I cant remember the details

[casandra]

I don't remember this story, pito but going back to the polar bears, I really don't think they actively hunt people...they may be the most carnivorous of all the bears but their main food which they actively hunt are the seals esp the ringed ones...in fact, you'd find them in abundance where these seals are plentiful....and they live mostly on ice floes in the arctic...so definitely not a lot of humans living over there....It's also very interesting how they do this sneaky, stealthy still-hunting...they're guided by their very keen sense of smell to the seals breathing holes and as soon as they detect the seal's breath, they'd reach in and haul it out from the hole and kill it...

But polar bear attacks are quite rare and they're also not territorial like the grizzlies. And if there's scarcity of food, they can actually fast for long periods of time.....but of course, if extremely provoked and hungry, no unarmed man is a match for them..the adult male is about 3 meters tall and weigh more than 500 kg....however, the terrestrial animals can easily outrun them- they become hot and then tire very fast....

[pito]

About the polar bears: since I couldnt figure out where I got that info, I checked a documentary on polar bears I onced taped and yes, there it was: "polar bears are the only know animals that will actively hunt people" ... said by the head researcher/polar bear team leader in some town where they sometimes pass by.

Too bad I only saved that part about the polar bears and not the entire documentary.

The thing is: grizzly bear kills you, but wont eat you (in general), polar bear: kills you and eats you..

[casandra]

pito, on 20 May 2011 - 10:06 AM, said:

About the polar bears: since I couldnt figure out where I got that info, I checked a documentary on polar bears I onced taped and yes, there it was: "polar bears are the only know animals that will actively hunt people" ... said by the head researcher/polar bear team leader in some town where they sometimes pass by.

Too bad I only saved that part about the polar bears and not the entire documentary.

The thing is: grizzly bear kills you, but wont eat you (in general), polar bear: kills you and eats you..

ok sure, if they're hungry enough, they can consider humans as prey...I think that anything that moves and smells will be considered as food but to actively hunt people like they do the seals? I'm not convinced by this. If you check the web for bear attacks..you'd find that there are more cases reported for the brown and the black bears. Recently, due to the floe break-ups and the melting of the sea ice, more and more polar bear sightings are reported but I think that there are more cases of garbage rummaging and food theft in human habitats than the actual killing and eating of people....

[hobglobin]

Doesn't it depends how you define hunting? For me not only killing and eating is "hunting", but actively following someone, i.e. chasing, until the prey is caught. And then killing or just checking if you taste good. and then feeding on you or leave you alone. Dead, hurt or with a huge shock, depending on hunger of the animal of course   . For me grizzlies, tigers and lions are hunting and they feed on humans, at least sometimes.
Check these sites:
Champawat Tiger
Tsavo maneaters with scientific reliable proofs
Indian Tigers
Gustave
and even a leopard
of course not meant as real proofs, lots of exaggeration, but anyway interesting.  

Edited by hobglobin, 20 May 2011 - 12:12 PM.