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Old 07-13-2012, 08:25 AM
 
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What was life like before Youtube.


!!KILLER WHALE VS GREAT WHITE SHARK!! - YouTube
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Old 07-13-2012, 10:29 AM
 
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Originally Posted by ovcatto View Post
I read plenty and humans as primary prey but rather sporadic aberrations which can often be pinpointed to a particular animal or group, like the pair of Tsavo lions that ravaged Kenya in the 1890's. Even in the extraordinary number of cases of fatal attacks by Tigers in India, separating attacks from for territorial reasons has to be separated from those that are the result of predation. I would further add that the likes of National Geographic, and the Discovery Channel usually go to great lengths to point out that when top level predators attack humans as prey, it is usually done by predators who have acquired a taste for human flesh from eating human remains or have been injured or suffer some impairment due to illness.

PS - I was reading National Geographic when is was in black and white, so please...
LOL! My collection only goes back to 1914. Seriously. I inherited it from my grandfather. The time period I am referencing is roughly 1920 to 1950, long before the current sensationalizing. If there was a sensational aspect during that period, it was showing the breasts of native women.

Example of what I mean:
March 1922 "The Hill Tribes of Burma" pp 272 caption "The trap built for the tiger and baited with one of its human victims"

I happen to have read that article last week, so it was still fresh in my mind. There are at least three or four other articles with casual mention of such predation within the text of a greater story or recounting of an expedition, and I haven't read but a quarter of the trove I have.

I specifically mentioned cats as a quick response, but now that I think on it, my American history readings have also had mention of bears that were problems. Then there are elephants. Although elephants are not predators, there are plenty of reports of them taking out villages in anger.

Not all of what has been recorded over time has made it into easy access on the web. Some of it never will, or if it does will never be searched out.

For me, in response to the original post, the bottom line is that there was regular predation on humans right up to the time when firearms came into common use. Since then, the tide turned and humans tried to wipe out those animals. Now, with a lack of understanding of the dangers involved, and inculcation by Disney and animal rights activists, many predators are being re-introduced into areas where there are humans, and laws put in place to protect them.
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Old 07-13-2012, 11:15 AM
 
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Originally Posted by ovcatto View Post
What was life like before Youtube.


!!KILLER WHALE VS GREAT WHITE SHARK!! - YouTube
Yeap that be the one .
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Old 07-13-2012, 11:17 AM
 
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Originally Posted by harry chickpea View Post
My collection only goes back to 1914..
Ii started to ask you what your hitting the century mark longevity secret was until i read the rest of your posting .
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Old 07-13-2012, 11:50 AM
 
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Originally Posted by 6 Foot 3 View Post
Ii started to ask you what your hitting the century mark longevity secret was until i read the rest of your posting .
I have no pressing desire to live to 100, however, if you want the secret it is basically genes. My grandmother lived to 107 and for a lot of those later years her diet was a LOT of cow's milk, a little epsom salt for the bowels, bread and mustard and a little chicken. She also stayed away from lions.
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Old 07-13-2012, 04:48 PM
 
Location: West Egg
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Quote:
Originally Posted by harry chickpea View Post
You don't read history enough. Humans HAVE BEEN a prey of choice of the big cats in India, Burma, Africa, and other places. Documented stories of such behavior abounds in older National Geographic magazines.
For the rare individual, yes -- but not for the type of animal at large.

Consider Florida:
19 million humans
1 million alligators

Yet there are only a handful of alligator attacks a year on people in Florida. Why? Because alligators very rarely choose to attack humans.

How many humans are there in California? 38 million, and the state has a vast state park system, 18 National Forests, 8 National Parks, all places people go out into mountain lion habitat. And the largest urban areas (Los Angeles, Bay Area, San Diego) are ringed with parkland and bisected by wildlife corridors frequented by cougars. And yet despite the fact that there are only about 700,000 deer in California (less than 2% as numerous as humans), mountain lions kill tens of thousands of deer annually in that state, and only kill a human once or twice a decade. Humans may be smarter than deer, but the deer have far better hearing and smell, and can run a lot faster. But the cougars invariably go for the deer. The mountain lion that attacks a human is exceedingly rare, the exception. So is the alligator, not to mention the grizzly, the tiger, the wolf, and so forth. The OP is correct in the assumption behind his question.

Now, why?

For one, humans just don't fit the prey profile of predators. We don't look like anything else that they hunt. For another thing, those enterprising predators who decide, "Hey, those tall, slow, hairless pink things look like they'd be easy to take down!" tend to get removed from the predator gene pool rather quickly once they act on such a thought. Thus, they rarely get to pass on their genetic proclivities or to nurture such tendencies in any more offspring. Their actions tend to create an evolutionary dead end.
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Old 07-13-2012, 07:40 PM
 
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There is a fascinating posit on the subject. Prey animals tend to shorter legs and grazing type behavior. As animals get domesticated, their legs get shorter.

I lived in Florida. Alligators have a strange metabolism. They can't pursue. If they do, they get overheated and die. Muffy the cat or Rags the dog are quick snacks. Humans are too big, with too much potential of fatal energy expenditure.

Cougars are small compared to humans and bears, and we aren't herbivores (except some in California and a few who eschew meat) and can easily be differentiated by scent. FWIW, if you want to keep rodents away from your place, eat a steak and pee on the corners of your house. If you want to freak out dogs, pee in a cup and place it HIGH up on the corners of your house. The smell will indicate a MAJOR predator.
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Old 07-14-2012, 06:13 AM
 
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Originally Posted by harry chickpea View Post
She also stayed away from lions.
Why?

From my understanding is that lion meat is very healthy as it's high in Conjugated Linoleic Acid .
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Old 07-14-2012, 07:17 AM
 
Location: Wasilla, Alaska
17,823 posts, read 23,398,546 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by harry chickpea View Post
You don't read history enough. Humans HAVE BEEN a prey of choice of the big cats in India, Burma, Africa, and other places. Documented stories of such behavior abounds in older National Geographic magazines.
Humans still are prey. Every year people are mauled by bear in Alaska. It has become how we mark the beginning of Spring.

Then there is this: Wolves kill teacher in Alaska - Los Angeles Times

Anyone who walks through the forests of Alaska unarmed will quickly come to realize that they are not on the top of the food chain. Just ask Timothy Tredwell and his girlfriend.
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Old 07-14-2012, 09:24 AM
 
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Let us not forget other predators like ticks and fleas and lice and bedbugs. A predator doesn't have to be big or have muscle mass to be just as deadly.
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