Parents are always telling their kids about all sorts of creatures – bees, dogs, mice, etc. – that “they’re more afraid of you than you are of them”. Is that really true? Does it depend if the human is actually afraid of them or not? (In other words, obviously if I’m not afraid of them at all, I have a greater chance that they’re afraid of me than if I’m terrified.) Do animals tell their kids the same thing?
I am kinda scary looking so I bet all animals are more scared of me…
Most of the people who say this, I would imagine, do not care whether the animal actually is scared or not. They just say it to let people know that most animals are quite timid and will not attack without provocation. Since there is no way to quantify human fear, you can imagine the difficulty with other species. An actual comparison is impracticable.
Animals, be they humans or otherwise, all have an instinct for survival. Since in nature, strength is usually based on size, animals tend to use this to judge wether or not a human is a threat. if an animal is smaller than a human, they will not usually attack unless threatened beacause they don’t think they have a very good chance of survivng. Bees are different because they are always acting in the best intrests of the rest of the hive. they will sacrifice themselves for the good of the rest.
In this general line of thought I would guess that a large, African bull elephant would not likely be truly scared of anything smaller than himself, which as far as land animals go is just about everything. I wonder, if say a T-Rex popped onto the scene, near a herd of elepahnts and was stalking them would the bulls be scared or just confused by this new, aggressive animal that is twice their size.
I do not know about the elephants, but I sure would be confused if a Trex just popped onto the scene
Elephants are actually rather intelligent animals. I saw an elaphant special on Animal Planet, so obviously I’m an expert. If a herd of elephants sees poachers approaching, esp. if they are already carrying tusks, they will quietly slip away, so I guess they are “afraid” of poachers, but it seems to be to be more pragmatism than fear. They seem to understand that they are hunted for their tusks, and will even hide the tusks of a dead relative. But yeah, I think they’d be pretty scared of a T-Rex.
How does a huge elephant just “slip away”. Those poor guys are not as smart as they think. I am picturing an elephant hiding behind one of those tiny African trees on the prairie thinking “If I just stay hidden behind this tree I will be ok”
I think of all the things parents tell their children, this has to be the most questionable. I understand the hickies cause cancer, chocolate causes zits, kissing will make you pregnant… etc etc. But why “They are more scared of you”? To me that is just encouraging the five year old to go running up to Mr. Aligator.
I will tell my children that these animals are not scared of anything. They will eat you if you do not keep your distance. In fact, you better be careful when you are sleeping because some animals are so brave they will sneak into your room and eat you!
That will keep my kids safe and out of harm’s way…
Crows are also smart. A whole flock can be not scared of people until one day a bunch of crows get shot. The crows will learn to associate the rifle with death, and will fly away when a man is carrying a rifle, but behave relatively normally when he isn’t.
my 6 yr old cousin at the time, was visiting his grandma farm (and my grandma’s also). Our grandma’s farm was kind of primitve w/ no running water and a outhouse. Our grandma was cooking and needed some water so he looked at Tim and said you are old enough now, grab the bucket and get me some water from the pond. Tim goes to the pond and starts filling the bucket and all of a sudden looks down into the water. He sees 2 eyes looking back at him. He drops the bucket and runs back yelling ‘grandma…grandma there in a crock(adile) in the pond.’ Grandma laughs and says “that crock has been there for years and havent bothered anyone, that old crock is more scared of you then you are of him.” then tim says to grandma, “then that water is not fit to drink”
Bahaha! That’s a good one.
While hiking in Skyline, my woman and I ran across a big-ass black bear rooting around in a rotten log (honestly, I thought those things were supposed to be small–not true). He was definitely not more scared than we. In fact, he didn’t even care about us. Eventually, we walked past him, because we were out of water and four miles from any more. He took the time to note our departure by looking up from his business briefly, but nothing else.
As an avid fan of the Crocodile Hunter, I’m qualified to answer this. OK, so I’m not qualified - I don’t even know the difference (or lack thereof) between a steer and an ox. But I did see an episode of Crocodile Hunter where he was chasing an elephat through the jungle. Steve backed away from the anilmal so it wouldn’t charge at him, and when he went to follow again, it had vanished in the trees. Couldn’t see it or hear it moving. Really amazing an animal that large could hide itself so easily.
As for the OP, I have no idea what animals are saying to each other. But I believe their natural instinct is to not pick a fight with something larger than itself - a rule many humans live by as well. I was hiking one time with some friends when we were told not to move. Ahead on the side of the path was a copperhead. The brush on the sides of the path was too thick to wade through and give the snake more room, so we all just walked past it very carefully. When I got to it, it was coiled up ready to strike, obviously ready to defend itself, not to attack us or it would have already bit one of the hikers in front of me. We walked past and it slithered away. I think that pretty clearly showed that it was more afraid of us attacking it than of it wanting to attack us.
It is a good idea not to exhibit too much fear around animals. Displays of fear around predators can give them the idea that you are “prey” and can trigger an attack.
It is for this reason that it is not a good idea just to turn tail and run if you encounter a cougar, or a bear (or a vicious dog for that matter).
IIRC, you should also avoid making eye contact. You are not their natural prey, so for the most part they will leave you alone. They may just want you out of their territory, so avoid eye contact and slowly move away.
I don’t know too much about bears or cougars, but dogs have an instinct to chase things that run from them. It’s not so much that a viscous dog thinks of you as prey as it is that a dog is following a natural urge that helped its ancestors survive.
I’ve taught all my kids never to worry how fast and animal is…just be faster than whoever you’re with.