So how do humans compare to other creatures physically?

[rhubarbarin]

@Chronos

Humans are the world’s fastest runners over long enough distances.

We’re up there near the top of the list, but we’re not quite #1. I’m pretty sure that pronghorns are the top, and nobody really understands why they’re so fast.

I would say throughout our history we’ve been above average in that regard if you compare us to other exceptionally long-lived large mammals which usually have single offspring that are mostly or entirely dependant for a few years.

First of all, if you have to compare us to other single-offspring animals, then we’re already losing in that regard. “Reproduce fast enough that you don’t care about losses”, as an evolutionary strategy, pretty much requires large litters. And you can’t compare us to other exceptionally long-lived mammals, because there aren’t any: Elephants come closest, and they’re still ready to start popping out calves at age 13.

My only point is that there are other animals who have a lower birthrate in their natural habitat.

Almost all the species I mentioned have a 40-90 year possible lifespan, and about a 35-year fertile period after they become reproductively mature, just like humans. Most start reproducing a few years younger on average than we do, but lose their fertility (or begin dying off) at a younger age. Those who live long enough to have up to 35 years of fertility usually have a drop-off in fertility after that time, followed by infertility, just like us. Elephants and many whales are the best examples. And like us, in those species post-fertile females help care for related young.

[Chronos]

We’re better than most big animals at climbing trees; I bet we’re the largest New World animal that can brachiate.

If you consider us a New World animal, that is. And while we can brachiate, we’re really not very good at it (nowhere near orangutans, say). I will grant that we’re better at tree-climbing than most big animals, though (probably better than black bears, and I don’t know how we compare to cougars).

[TriPolar]

@Chronos

Animal husbandry is just another kind of tool use. It’s just that some of our tools are alive.

Animal husbandry is a tool? Wow, those new enrollees at A&M are in for a surprise.

[Ludovic]

You have to use your tool well to be an animal husband.

[EdwardLost]

@rhubarbarin

I think this is an oversimplification. We’re certainly skilled at traveling long distances at a steady pace on the right terrain, but I’ve never seen data that suggests we’re objectively the fastest animal over a long enough distance.

Our biggest advantage is that we handle heat/overheating very, very well. We sweat profusely all over our smooth skin which has a cooling effect. We can regulate our breathing independant of our stride (many 4-legged animals have a very hard time with this especially at a fast pace). And of course we can and do carry water when we’re going distances. The ability to sip rather than having to stop and fill the stomach with water at a mid-point is a big advantage all by itself.

In a generally hot (and teeming with wildlife) enviroment like our native Africa we’re going to do okay as weaponless hunters. Put us in the Artic in the freezing cold, deep snow, and clothes that hamper our movement - we need weapons, and our main food is seals because we can sneak up right behind them. Wolves, on the other hand, are naturally perfectly suited to running after prey for hours through snow and in sub-zero temps.

Our ancestors might very well have evolved to be active in the hot African sun, but it seems likely they used this ability to scavage carcasses rather than to hunt. The vultures would get to the dead gnu first, of couse, but humans could beat the hyenas and lions to the scene and make off with a big share.

[Kobal2]

@Chronos

Sure, but humans definitely aren’t one of them. We’re probably the slowest-breeding of all the mammals.

Not only are we restricted to one litter per year (more or less), but our kids take forever to reach adulthood as well. Other mammals may be born, live a full life and die in the time it takes for our tykes to be able to reproduce, let alone hold a steady tool using job.

[Kamino_Neko]

@Chessic_Sense

Humans are the world’s fastest runners over long enough distances. We can still hunt large prey like cattle and bison, especially in groups. We’re good stalkers. So I’d say that compares to…wolves?

OK, you’ve just run a bison to exhaustion. Let’s be generous and assume it died from it (otherwise, it’ll rest and get up and begin the chase again).

You have no tools. Nor the ability to think of improvising one from the surroundings. How do you get at the meat with your bare hands and human teeth?

[Blake]

@Tengu

OK, you’ve just run a bison to exhaustion.

If he has no tools, why would a bison run from him? What is he going to do if it doesn’t run? Spit at it? Call it names? Try to kick it to death?

Bison don’t run from foxes or raccoons, even though either one could do more damage to a bison than an unarmed human. That’s because they know that the best tactic when confronted with such an inefficient predator is to stand still, even if the predator does try to attack, they jut step on it. And that is exactly what would happen to us.

Large animals run from humans because if they don’t run we can kill them with our tools. If we don’t have tools they will rapidly learn not to bother running from us. At that point our ability to run long distances becomes worthless. Nothing bigger then a deer is going to bother running form human if we don’t have tools.

Let’s be generous and assume it died from it (otherwise, it’ll rest and get up and begin the chase again).

That, at least, isn’t an issue. American Indians used to capture horses by running them to exhaustions and then leaping onto their necks and choking them to unconsciousness. We can kill exhausted animals effectively even without tools.

But once again, why would it run itself to exhaustion escaping something as harmless as a human?

You have no tools. Nor the ability to think of improvising one from the surroundings. How do you get at the meat with your bare hands and human teeth?

For small animals we have many options.

We can pick them up and drop them over a creek bank or hoist them into a tree and drop them from there. When it goes splat we can eat all the meat we want. Of course if we can run the animal off a cliff that saves a lot of effort.

We can break the bones, and the compound fracture will provide a hole through the skin. Even without any tool at all it’s easy to break the leg bones or ribs of something like a deer by jumping on it or kicking it.

If there are no convenient cliffs or trees around we can simply drag the carcasse a few hundred metres until the skin abrades away.

Once you can make a hole in a hide it’s fairly easy to widen it. It’s making that initial hole that’s tricky.

For larger animals we can wait until other scavengers open the skin and then reclaim the kill. If in our fantasyland are supposing that a bison will run from an unarmed human then a wolf, coyote or buzzard sure as heck will.

[Manduck]

@Tengu

OK, you’ve just run a bison to exhaustion. Let’s be generous and assume it died from it (otherwise, it’ll rest and get up and begin the chase again).

You have no tools. Nor the ability to think of improvising one from the surroundings. How do you get at the meat with your bare hands and human teeth?

Eat the tongue and eyeballs and leave the rest for the vultures. After the vultures have torn it up a bit, chase them away and eat the rest. If the vultures count as tools, you still have the tongue and eyeballs.

[Blake]

@Manduck

Eat the tongue and eyeballs and leave the rest for the vultures. After the vultures have torn it up a bit, chase them away and eat the rest. If the vultures count as tools, you still have the tongue and eyeballs.

You do realise that you would consume many more calories running down a bison than you could possibly get from the tongue and eyeballs?

[Superhal]

My WAGs:

1. If we still had our intelligence (yet, somehow we were unable to use tools, even those as basic as a stone to throw or a stick to pull termites out of holes like chimps,) I think there’s no way to stop us from doing anything. In the above discussion about eating a bison, we could drag it to a cliff, drop it off, and eat it after it splatters, which (if we were still intelligent) seems nonsensical since there are two sharp pointy horns right on it that we could use to cut the meat.

2. When humans were in the hunter-gatherer stage, they didn’t seem to have much trouble surviving on wild plants and animals. Without tools, there would be less meat though.

3. Don’t hands and teeth count as tools? Ōyama Masutatsu had televised demonstrations where he would wrestle with a bull and use his bare hands to break off the bull’s horns. Unarmed, trained humans could harm, maim, kill or hunt animals, chop down trees, break stone, etc. But again, we return to the logical flaw: if we’re smart enough to do this, why aren’t we smart enough to use a rock instead of our fist?

So, to answer the OP: I think that tools give us an overwhelming advantage over all other creatures on the planet. However, without tools, we still would be the top predator, but just slightly less dominating.

[constanze]

@Bisected8

I’ve heard the “humans’ mains strength is tool usage” line hundreds of times in fiction and non-fiction, with the general implication “civilisation” is what means we’re the planet’s dominant species (whatever that actually means).

As long as you keep in mind that we’re not the only tool-using species on the planet: Chimps and other humanoid apes use tools like rocks and twigs. Even birds use twigs to get insects!

[coremelt]

@Tengu

You have no tools. Nor the ability to think of improvising one from the surroundings. How do you get at the meat with your bare hands and human teeth?

Sorry this part is a contradiction, we can and always have been able to use sticks or rocks to break carcasses apart from far before we were human. Or as others have said we can drag them and drop them over a ledge. saying “no tools” is just a completely nonsensical restriction.