Predators 'Drove Human Evolution'

BBC ^ | 2-19-2006 | Paul Ricon

[Junior]

Face it. You've caught your cats looking at you like, "I bet I could take you" or "my ancestors ate your ancestors, monkey boy, so you better be nice to me."

[Junior]

What could an eagle or a cat do to someone?

Remember, the folks we're talking about were about a meter tall full grown at the tallest. Fossil skulls of young australopithecines show predation by large birds of prey which could easily lift them and carry them away.

[Junior]

I'm going to have to bookmark that site. I'm a bit of an amateur paleozoologist...

[Junior]

How about Nutria?

[Junior]

People are eaten by crocodiles every year in Egypt. Crocs kill more people than sharks. Remember, in Northern Africa crocs stake out ALL available water sources. You either have to go to their watering hole, or you die of thirst. The trick is to spot them and keep them in view while you drink.

[Junior]

Predators eat other predators. Pigs are one of the most vicious omnivores in existence (humans are also omnivores). Pigs have forward-facing eyes to hunt rodents and other critters they eat, but they are still preyed upon by other predators.

[WestwardHo]

"Mother Nature"? "Mother Nature experimented heavily with elephant species....."
I knew it! Another ignorant #!*$@!!+=% creationist trying to sneak Intelligent Design under the guise of scientific speculation.

[Havoc]

Wow, all those were created 6000 years ago.. what a diverse
creation from a masterful artist.

[Verginius Rufus]

According to my dictionary, tapirs are ungulates, and their closest living relatives are horses and rhinoceroses.

[Verginius Rufus]

I saw a nature program about capybaras several years ago. Back when the Catholic Church didn't allow people to eat meat on Fridays, but fish was allowed, the local people decided that the capybara was a fish because it spends so much time in the water...so they could eat it on Fridays.

[NicknamedBob]

"... except all the 6000-year-old earth creationists who hang around FR."

Wowzer! I thought I'd been around a while.

They must not post very often.

[Beagle8U]

You are correct, the Capybara is listed as the worlds largest rodent.

Not sure why I was thinking the tapir was a rodent...lol

[To Hell With Poverty]

"So far, in my experience, it's always been the other way around..."

Heh. I was waiting for someone to post that....

[Tallguy]

Leopards were the main predators "we" had to worry about.

There are images of Alexander (the Great) hunting with his father, Philip. They were hunting lions -- in the Balkans. So yes, cats were a threat.

[Tallguy]

Cesarean section births are now very common so evolution of brain size has probably resumed.

I think that medical malpractice insurance premiums are driving this development more than evolution. ;)

[Tallguy]

snicker.

[Wiseghy]

Naked, clawless, bi-pedal, weaklings on the savana were prey; no mystery there. The mystery is what kind of co-operation would have resulted in survival.

In the meantime, no one has explained how awareness of the divine and unseen contributed to survival.

[ASA Vet]

BEAR STORY

(Actual date unknown)

The downloaded pictures are of a man who works for the US Forest Service in Alaska and his trophy bear.

He was out deer hunting last week when a large grizzly bear charged him from about 50 yards away. The guy emptied his 7mm Magnum semi-automatic rifle into the bear and it dropped a few feet from him. The big bear was still alive so he reloaded and shot it several times in the head.

The bear was just over one thousand six hundred pounds It stood 12' 6" high at the shoulder, 14' to the top of his head. It's the largest grizzly bear ever recorded in the world. Of course, the Alaska Fish and Wildlife Commission did not let him keep it as a trophy, but the bear will be stuffed and mounted, and placed on display at the Anchorage airport to remind tourists of the risks involved when in the wild.

Based on the contents of the bears stomach, the Fish and Wildlife Commission established the bear had killed at least two humans in the past 72 hours including a missing hiker. The US Forest Service, backtracking from where the bear had originated, found the hiker's 38-caliber pistol emptied. Not far from the pistol was the remains of the hiker. The other body has not been found. Although the hiker fired six shots and managed to hit the grizzly with four shots (the Service ultimately found four 38 caliber slugs along with twelve 7mm slugs inside the bear's dead body), it only wounded the bear and probably angered it immensely. The bear killed the hiker an estimated two days prior to the bear's own death by the gun of the Forest Service worker.

Think about this: If you are an average size man; You would be level with the bear's navel when he stood upright. The bear would look you in the eye when it walked on all fours! To give additional perspective, consider that this particular bear, standing on its hind legs, could walk up to an average single story house and look over the roof, or walk up to a two story house and look in the bedroom windows.

[stormer]

"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."

In northern Namibia I came across a lion and her freshly killed zebra near a waterhole. I pulled the truck up for a good view (about 20 feet) and was watching, when all of the sudden I heard (and felt) something rubbing against the side of the truck. An elephant was cruising up to the kill - the lion crouched for a bit, hissed (if that's what you call it - it a little more terrifying than Fluffy), and took off. In the mean time I'm about ready to make a pantload; elephants are very dangerous and they mean business. I was thinking about some advice another researcher had given me before I went into elephant country: "For God's sake stay in the truck, and whatever you do - don't turn the engine off." The elephant left, the lion returned, and I had one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

[RightOnline]

Cute, yes...........but they have tempers.......