Posted on 02/19/2006 12:18:49 PM PST by blam
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I believe the French survived because they left a bad taste in the mouth of major predators.
So far, in my experience, it's always been the other way around...
I missed that movie. A remake of Food of the Gods, perhaps?
Well, we eventually became able to kill crocodile, but we have not succeeded in making them fearful of us. But for purposes of this exercise in imagination, I was assuming a small, weak hominid and wondering why they would let themselves be crocodile food except as a very occasional accident. It's not like 40,000 people have to migrate they herd across the river to get to the wintering grounds, and they are willing to lose a few along the way. We are talking about small bands of people, and even if they have very rudimentary brains, they ought to be smart enough to stay away from the crocodile hole.
That's a really interesting article (although I think you may have meant that reply for the OP rather than for me).
I've read and seen the documents. Convinced me.
Ah! Thanks!
"The case of who killed the single most important human ancestor has finally been laid to rest after more than 80 years of debate and scientific investigation. The announcement that the Taung child was killed by an eagle was made on Thursday by Professor Lee Berger at an international conference held at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg."
if you are with defensive weapons, you are armed. i am kidding with you, of course. but your point is taken. humans have only one real weapon: a highly developed brain. we do not have huge teeth or claws or the speed of predators. this theory seems like a no-brainer. pun intended.
i remember studying the Taung Child in college. mostly in my human osteology class. my professors believed it was death by a large cat of some sort. great new evidence of death by raptor.
"With the exception of horses, more humans are killed by dogs then any other animal."
Depends on how you look at it.
If you except humans, and limit yourself to large animals, that's probably true. More humans are killed by other humans than by any other large animal.
If you consider indirect effects of small animal attacks, though, the biggest animal killer of humans is the mosquito, by far. One might say that it's really the Malaria, but then, one might say that the dog or bear doesn't kill anyone; what kills an animal attack victim is oxygen deprivation to the brain. What deprives the brain of oxygen is loss of blood or cutting of the airway. What causes the loss of blood or cuts off the airway is the dog bites.
Likewise, what causes death is the malaria but what causes the malaria to be there is the mosquito bite.
"Lions charge into herd of wildebeest. Once they have singled out a victim the other wildebeest ignore it and relax. They make no effort to help their fellow."
One of those nature shows had an episode where the cape buffalo came to the aid of one of the herd, driving off the lions. The lions regrouped and the buffalo gave up.
Elephants won't tolerate lions around the water hole and will chase them off. I think they can get up to 25 mph, which is useful here.
I just saw that last week. The lions killing a buffalo is not 'a slam-dunk.'
Well, you're certainy entitled to believe whatever you want. I however, remain highly skeptical.
So much for 'man's best friend' huh?
bump for later scrutiny.
And still are...
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