I always here statements that man is at the top of the food chain. Is that really so? Yes, because of our technology, we are afforded protection from being eaten on a regular basis, but there are plenty of animals that mano on animano would take us out no problem. Sharks, bears, tigers, lions (oh my), fire ants, aligators, crocodiles - there seem to be plenty of animals that have no problem eating or at least taking a big chunk out of humans.
Now I hear a lot of nature folks say things like “these animals won’t attack unless provoked” or “they don’t usually eat humans”. I submit that they don’t usually eat humans because they aren’t used to seeing us around. There is nothing magical about being human that will give a tiger pause before eating us.
Being at the top of the food chain is somewhat of a meaningless statement. I think you have to qualify it to refer to animals “regular” food source to make it meaningful. Surely a great white could attack and kill a small, solo Orca, but Orcas are NOT part of their regular diet. Tigers kill the occasional human, but humans are not part their regular diet. Also, if you take away a human’s tools, you don’t allow a human to be human. We didn’t evolve to be able to survive w/o tools, or w/o a social structure for that matter.
So, to the extent that any animal is the “top of the food chain”, it’s us. We can, if we desire, kill any animal we want as often as we want. All we need to do is decide to do it. No other animal is even capable of making such a decision.
from what i understand, just because you’re at the top doesn’t mean other people can’t eat you. it just means that you aren’t on anyone’s regular prey list.
crocodiles for example, can be eaten by tigers. (link to .wmv)
Bacteria are probably at the top of the food chain. If it weren’t for our immune system we’d be eaten alive and once you die and your immune system shuts down that is exactly what happens. Bacteria eat everything and not many life forms eat bacteria for fuel.
But it’s no accident that we have technology. We are smarter than other animals, and we have greater manual dexterity. Our tools weren’t just handed to us, we invented them. It’s part of what we are. To say other animals would “take us out no problem” without our technology is kind of like saying I could lick a shark…on land.
Yes. The “food chain” like the “ladder of life” grossly oversimplifies the situation by forcing a one dimensional description on a multi-dimensional world.
As I understand it, crocs aren’t actually dangerous to much anything - if that thing knows how to exploit their weaknesses (you don’t want to try outrunning one, because they’re quick, but they have other flaws.)
When I was in the 6th grade (1989) we took a trip to Nature’s Classroom, which is a science camp for middle schoolers. One of the things we were taught was the food chain for a game called “Predator, Prey” and we were divided up into different animal groups, the lower on the food chain, the fewer people in each group. Humans, Polar Bears and Orcas had the fewest players, because they were considered equal on the foodchain, because unlike all other animasl (so we were told) polar bears and orcas will both eat humans before other food sources if they get the chance. I know that polar bears consider humans yummy so that probably does put them at our level on the food chain, but do orcas really snack on humans whenever they get the chance?
Yeah, food web is a much more appropriate metaphor. Doesn’t have the ring of “food chain” though, nor the artificial hierarchical structure that tends to reinforce human conceits.
“Food chain” is really a pretty useless concept, but I still like to evoke it, on occasion; such as when a vegan harasses me over my hamburger, my usual reply being “life in the food chain is a bitch”.
Well, that only proves he’s above horse patooty in the chain.
The top top tippy-top of the food chain? Iron. It’s the most relaxed state of matter, on the assumption that no matter who or what eats who or what, it’ll all be academic when this planet gets pulled into the whit dwarf star our sun wil eventually become and undergo stellar fusion.
Actually, I wonder if we haven’t helped the natural selection process to the point where only the animals that are meek toward humans. After all, European tradition is to fear and hate wolves and bears: imagine if they actually attacked humans for food on a regular basis? Sure, they would have short term success, but humans are smarter and better organized. Aggresive animals would be toast. So the ones that had whatever combination of genes that led them to not think of humans as food survived.
Funny this discussion should come up, as my wife an I were discussing the same thing recently.
My argument is that yes we are on the top, not because we can’t be eaten but due to the fact that while polar bears, lions, Tigers, and Sharks may eat people we have the ultimate advantage over them in how we choose what to eat.
I can sit at home and think to myself “gosh I could go for an Penguin egg omelette” And know that if go to my local exotic food restaurant/ shop I can get it.
I have the advantage in that, no matter where I am (except isolated from my fellow human beings, of course) I can expect another human being has gone out of his way on the other side of the world to either procure the egg and ship it to me or at least ship a group of Penguins to my home town to a farmer who will harvest the eggs. I also have other humans who will transport the eggs and others who can prepare it safely. Heck there are even others who will organize and protest my having it.
In other words we as a species can go anywhere on the planet and eat whatever tickles our fancy.
Sharks, and the likes, have to wait for something to stumble into their path. If they are lucky it is a tasty dopey human.