What would happen if all the animals on the earth suddenly decided to do everything in their power to hunt, maim and kill humans?
What would something like that look like initially? Would we have to deploy the military to keep the animals at bay (like all the bears coming out the forest trying to break into our houses, tigers, etc all trying to break into our living spaces)
Would we still remain dominant or would it truly be only the strong that would survive in such a scenario?
And finally would animals go extinct if they turned to humans as their source of food or would they have to supplement or would they be nourished with the weak humans that can’t fight them off?
If all the animals in the world, including insects, decided to attack us we would be wiped out in a matter of days. It would be a lot harder to defend against being smothered by gnats than being attacked by bears.
Birds? A little light body armor and a helmet, and you’re fine.
Mammals? Hey, we’re pretty good with tools; a good kitchen knife is probably enough to keep a dog at bay, and a larger implement will make a larger mammal think twice.
Guns would certainly be a lot more popular, as would surveillance systems. Once you know a bear or big cat has breached your perimeter, you grab The Big Gun and head for your ambush spot.
It depends if they are intelligent enough to coordinate their attacks, or just go after humans willy-nilly. There aren’t enough large bodied carnivores to pose much threat to humans in North America or Europe, or China, or Japan, once we caught on. Even if it includes herbivores, they aren’t that much of a threat - we have to limit hunting to seasons to protect the population of many species like bears and moose.
Humans are apex predators, and we got that way because we won out against other larger animals thru our ability to think abstractly, communicate using symbols, and use technology. That wouldn’t change.
I’ve had birds crash into the windows on my back porch a couple of times. Killed the bird, didn’t even crack the window. Biggest was just a Blue Jay, I imagine a hawk or something could break the glass, but probably wouldn’t be up for much of a fight afterwards. I’d be way more worried about something like ants, wake up with 100,000 ants on you and it might be rough going.
Please don’t awaken the zombie animals; they’re even meaner than the current ones. We may have done it again since, but I don’t recall posting in such a thread.
Ref this xkcd: Land Mammals you’ll also see that we’re not so overwhelmed by the mammals. Our challenge would be more the insects and bacteria. Not that half of them aren’t trying to kill us already.
Well, bacteria called Yersinia pestis killed off 1/3 of humans without even trying (Black Death). Think what they could do if they were actively trying, together with all the other animals.
I’m solidly in the human camp. We didn’t get here by being nice, stupid, slow and vegetarian.
I think you have the start of a good movie. Seriously. There have been thrillers with one animal at a time, birds, bats, bees, etc, but not the whole shebang. I would think that adding bacteria and things like that to the mix ruins it. Bacteria aren’t animals anyway, they are single celled organisms.
Lots of interesting drama. If the attack began at night, everyone with a large dog is toast. You would have your throat savaged before you got fully awake. I don’t think cats are a serious problem unless they are gaining intelligence as others have suggested. And I think that ruins the movie by being too implausible. Just have all animals return to their feral state, but with humans imprinted as F O O D. How is something like a sheep going to kill you? What, gnaw on your fingers for an hour until you bleed to death? Come on. Because it is going to come down to one on one after the herds are thinned out.
Cities are remote from large insect populations and modern buildings are pretty tight. I sure wouldn’t want to live in Africa with large herds of game and fifty gazzilion bugs per acre in places. Even people in bison country would be scrambling to find large caliber rifles. No real problem, we have them alright, but getting them deployed in the right areas takes time.
Some one asked about what we would eat. Same thing we do now, nice fat chickens, pigs and cattle in concentration camps. No bovine is taking down a proper fence. Humans are fantastic at building things with brick, mortar and steel. But it takes time and money. You don’t want the movie to be too short. We just have to be more careful milking them.
Agree in general. As per the earlier thread on topic.
Domestic sheep, at least male domestic sheep, are more dangerous to humans than you probably think. They’re territorial and are plenty strong enough to head-butt you into a broken leg, followed by battering your hornless unarmored skull in. Happens to a few farmers every year.
Pigs too, although how they kill is a bit different.
As long as we keep them in our concentration camps we’ll be fine. But a lot of small farms and small farm practices won’t be secure enough at first.
Lower animals don’t “try” to do anything unrelated to survive and reproduce. If humans get attritted in the course of their lives, I doubt if they think baby humans are cute enough to save.
Baby humans are so sweet! But not no sweet that animals would be put off by the cloying sweet taste.
As in most predator-on-prey situations, the young’uns in the target herd will be the first priority if the hunters can separate them from protective adults.
Except where the OP adds a new “attack humans to survive” imperative to their instinctual behavior.
Or, more plausibly, as **mixdenny **said: They all suddenly get imprinted with the idea that humans = food. A pack of hungry carnivores could readily enjoy the bounteous buffet at a defenseless day care center.
