What are some animals, where if an unarmed man encountered one and it caused a scuffle, would it be a fairly even match? Not talking fight to the death or anything, just a short encounter, since that tends to be what happens in the wild. Obviously an irate chipmunk isn’t too much of a threat to a man(unless it has rabies), but a grizzly bear would make short work of a human. But there’s a lot in between, like cougars, wolves, hyenas, cheetahs, smaller black bears, gators on land… Kangaroos.
As a general rule, I wouldn’t want to fight anything that makes a living out of singularly killing & eating stuff my approximate size/mass. Which would rule out any sort of large cat including cougars and jaguars.
Get a couple beers in me and I might be willing to fight an ocelot if it says shit about my mother.
An adult man with his wits about him can probably scare off most animals smaller than a lion (and many larger), unless they’re starving or otherwise rationally impaired. At least in my experience – once, while jogging early before the sun came up, two large dogs (looked like Rottweilers to me) charged me, growling, from a sidestreet. My first inclination was to flee, but I was already tired and I knew I’d never outrun them, so I turned and ran towards them, screaming like a madman and flailing my arms.
They immediately turned and ran. I think most animals would do this, unless they’re enraged, starving, or so large and fierce that they never flee from anything.
As for fighting, I think an adult man could probably fight off a cougar or a single wolf, unless it was cornered, protecting its babies, or starving.
I don’t mean that an adult man is physically superior to a cougar or a wolf, just that we could probably present enough of a fight that it would decide it’s not worth it to continue, and run off. In a gladiatorial arena, with no possibility of flight, an average unarmed adult man probably couldn’t kill any animal larger than 100 lbs, and many smaller animals (like apes and monkeys bigger than 50 lbs) would probably kill us before we could kill them.
Humans have an advantage over most animals their size in terms of intimidation - we stand upright, and so appear much larger than we actually are. When you see animals facing off against each other, they often attempt to rear up, arch their backs (like cats) or even stand on their hind legs, for this exact reason - to appear larger (bears do this, for example).
When it comes to an actual fight, I suspect that advantage becomes a disadvantage - we are more unstable and easier to knock down.
Not to mention the relative lack of effective natural weapons. We wouldn’t be biting anything to death, which leaves… strangulation or kicking something until it stops moving?
One way of evening the odds would be if our hypothetical person was able to pick stuff up off the ground. Even a small rock held in the hand as a bludgeon would go a long way towards making up for the lack of tusks, horns, or really effective teeth.
I used to work with several different species of monkeys, ranging from 10 to 50 kg. They were uniformly scary and I would never want to take one on without a club or some other weapon. I witnessed many severe injuries to handlers that required multiple stitches.
With that said, the most common animals that have hurt me the worst are house cats. Trying to control an unruly cat without a bag or a loop is crazy. I would much rather take on a couple dogs. Cats are crazy and have lots of sharp parts.
The human would have to be comfortable fighting in an unconventional manner; animals do not fight “fair” and that’s something a person is going to have to be ready for. Predators instinctively know where your weak points are; chimps are known to go straight for the eyes and crotch, and large cats will go right for the throat.
I’ve done this three times. But, it was when my dog was being attacked. A protective instinct takes over and I just basically dove in the middle of the fray and scared the shit out of all the animals by yelling and pushing. These where always 60-70 pound dogs. I would throw any of them I could reach out of it. Adrenaline is what really drove me.
I think they where all mostly just stunned about the new crazy combatant that is bigger. And I got into it almost immediately.
I am a big guy, but I’ve been very lucky.
I’ve scared black bears away a few times. Banging pots and pans does not always work. If they just sit there watching the house (it was weird). I would put a large caliber round into a tree stump near them. That, so far, has worked.