Why are animals afraid of humans?

[ZombiezuRFER]

I think animals are scared of humans because of obvious predatory biological traits, and the sheer size.  Most people don't realize humans are large animals.

[WhiteTiger89]

I think animals are scared of humans because of obvious predatory biological traits, and the sheer size.  Most people don't realize humans are large animals.

Lol. Most people don't realize that humans are animals at all!

[Self-sain]

 

I think animals are scared of humans because of obvious predatory biological traits, and the sheer size.  Most people don't realize humans are large animals.

That wouldn't explain why an animal like a mountain lion would naturally fear us.

[ArcticSkyWolf]

well animals are scared of other animals and us humands are scared of other humans.

[Zaspher]

Humans are not at all predators we're scavangers. We evovled to gather food and take out slow and injured prey. Our sweat and urine contains strong compounds that scare off many other animals making us seem much worse than we actually are. We smell very dangerous. That and the fact that in most the places we inhabit we are aliens to the environment. Our breath also carries a strong scent. Due to the many different types of bacteria that live in our bodies. These bacteria can make a bite from a human bite very dangerous. A bite from a human can slowly poison the blood and kill the victim very slowly and painfully. We were actually pretty dangerous in our large social groups before civilization.

[___]

 

 

I think animals are scared of humans because of obvious predatory biological traits, and the sheer size.  Most people don't realize humans are large animals.

That wouldn't explain why an animal like a mountain lion would naturally fear us.

It kinda does.
Say that you had some knives and you stumbled across something that looks to be about 3x your height. It looks enormous!
So even if you have weapons, you know it'd probably be hard to take it down for food, and its size makes it a threat, so it'd better to retreat.

I also don't think many animals realize how powerless we are without our weapons. We don't have fur to cushion bites and blows to our bodies, we stand in such a way where are weak bellies are out in the open, and we don't have any weapons that come innately. The only thing we have going from our biology is our mind, and even that's pretty fallible sometimes (Just look around the internet. )

But all in all, we just look threatening I think.

Post Merge: July 28, 2011, 12:41:45 AM

Humans are not at all predators we're scavangers. We evovled to gather food and take out slow and injured prey. Our sweat and urine contains strong compounds that scare off many other animals making us seem much worse than we actually are. We smell very dangerous. That and the fact that in most the places we inhabit we are aliens to the environment. Our breath also carries a strong scent. Due to the many different types of bacteria that live in our bodies. These bacteria can make a bite from a human bite very dangerous. A bite from a human can slowly poison the blood and kill the victim very slowly and painfully. We were actually pretty dangerous in our large social groups before civilization.

Wow, never thought of that. And I didn't know that our saliva was that dangerous!

[ZombiezuRFER]

Humans are not at all predators we're scavangers. We evovled to gather food and take out slow and injured prey. Our sweat and urine contains strong compounds that scare off many other animals making us seem much worse than we actually are. We smell very dangerous. That and the fact that in most the places we inhabit we are aliens to the environment. Our breath also carries a strong scent. Due to the many different types of bacteria that live in our bodies. These bacteria can make a bite from a human bite very dangerous. A bite from a human can slowly poison the blood and kill the victim very slowly and painfully. We were actually pretty dangerous in our large social groups before civilization.

Omnivory allows us to scavenge, but humans are predators undoubtedly.  Not through biological means do we kill, but with tools, ie rocks, spears, etc.

Humans have great binocular vision, allowing depth perception of great quality.  Human noses are too weak for scavenging, and aren't really main senses.

The way human look like predators, is the face.  It's the eyes that give off the predatory nature, and the size of the head is intimidating itself.

[icy wolf]

iam not sure why but with me animals tend to be friendly.

[Alison Marie]

I think it's more a matter of how unpredictable the average human is. Add that to the fact that the human species has a long history of killing pretty much every other living thing we come into contact with, and I'm sure it's at least partially an evolved response.

dido. i think pretty much the same thing. animals feel curiosity but at the same time they feel instinct. air go when you have potential threat + instinct (it will almost always) = negative responce. today one of my grandmas wild barn cats was laying there and i went to pet her she ran off. a little while later she came back. i had the idea to toss rocks infront of her to get her to pay atention to something. when i did this she was complete focused on the rocks. after about 30 minutes i got to hold her!!! yay!!!!