What animal, if any, can beat humanity in an all out war?

[YogSothoth]

The new Planet of the Apes movie comes out tomorrow so I thought I’d use the opportunity to ask a question I’ve been pondering for a while.

Here’s the premise: Imagine that all types of one animal* suddenly decide to make it their mission to destroy humanity. Any and all humans are targets. The purpose is not to create a better world for said animal or preserve the earth for future non-human denizens. If they can destroy the entire earth to kill humans, we must assume they will

*Of course, “animals” is a pretty complicated term. For the purposes of this thread, please feel free to define your chosen type of animal as broad or narrow as you like, but make it limited to one type (No “all fish in the oceans” that includes turtles, whales, jellyfish, and clams. But you may say all spiders and include all snakes that you want)

Also, animals do not get a boost of intelligence like in the movie. Monkeys should not suddenly be driving tanks or flinging a heavy poo specifically onto the nuclear launch button. Similarly, other animals should not suddenly support or hinder your chosen animal any differently than they do now. For example, if you chose sharks, then you’d still have killer whales sometimes attacking them, and fish will not swim into a shark’s jaws to feed it and help its war against humanity

Lastly, assume that while animals have suddenly been imbued with this bloodlust, humanity has not. Humanity should not consider the destruction of the animal as a win if humanity itself cannot survive (or is reduced severely). Therefore, humans cannot decide to launch all its nukes to destroy life on this planet in order to “win”. Humans must react to this attack with the specific goal of surviving it and eliminating the threat so that it may continue to dominate all other life on this planet (I also realize that some animals are crucial to the lifecycle and without them, life would be very different on earth. For these, assume that another type of animal would be able to take its place should humanity win by destroying all of them).

With those caveats, are there any animals that could threaten humanity if it chose to do so?

I think immediately, monkeys and apes are out. There’s simply not enough of them to threaten us. Likewise for pretty much all other mammals. Humanity has made the world its own, our cities spring up in all environments, temperatures, and climates. No other large-ish animal is that adaptable.

When I thought of this topic, I was kind of thinking about ants. They outnumber us something like a million to one. In swarms, they are frightening and deadly, and their size allows them to get in many places that bigger animals may not be able to break in. Plus, they are everywhere. If ants decide to rise up against humanity, probably 90% of us would be eaten within the first day. I don’t see humanity surviving against ants.

Fish are an interesting one. While I don’t think they can kill us through direct contact, imagine if all fish in the ocean and rivers somehow swim away from us and hide. It would wreck oceanlife. I don’t know how much of humanity depends on the ocean for meat, but its gotta be a large number. Could all fish swimming away from humans and other predators destroy humanity? Not all of us of course, but enough to make life very difficult?

I know that in many parts of the world, locusts are a big problem. Swarms can contain billions of individuals and stretch for miles. Sure, they can devastate farming, but in one region only right? If locusts are a threat to humanity, they’d have eaten everything already since I don’t think we really do much to stop them. But even they have to stop eating right? Could a swarm of locusts force itself to eat the entire US Midwestern breadbasket? Or would they die of full bellies long before that is accomplished?

[Sunspace]

I vote for bacteria. Specifically, the ones that cause the flesh-eating disease. One day, you wake up with a pain in your arm. The next day, you’re dead. What if that was happening to entire countries?

[lisacurl]

Rats.

I may have post-traumatic trauma from a childhood viewing of “Willard,” however.

[Jragon]

Locusts could certainly cripple us. Consider Japan, they lack the actual ability to feed the majority of their populace without imports. While that’s not a major problem for all countries, I assume attacking a few key production points (easy, even by random chance/simply looking for the biggest food source) could easily take us out if it were a concerted effort.

[Koxinga]

If every person’s gut flora suddenly decided to invade the intestinal wall and cause sepsis, we’d all be toast in short order. Would that count?

[Ostrya]

None

[Argent_Towers]

@YogSosoth

Fish are an interesting one. While I don’t think they can kill us through direct contact, imagine if all fish in the ocean and rivers somehow swim away from us and hide. It would wreck oceanlife. I don’t know how much of humanity depends on the ocean for meat, but its gotta be a large number. Could all fish swimming away from humans and other predators destroy humanity? Not all of us of course, but enough to make life very difficult?

Well, a lot of fishermen would commit suicide, I can tell you that much.

[scratch_llll]

Bears. If they were smart we wouldn’t stand a chance in hell. They would take campers left and right but not leave any evidence behind. They would form gangs with sentries and surprise hunters with an ambush. They would lay traps. They would pop skulls like we bite an apple then they would cover thier tracks and destroy all evidence. Watch how much a bear wants to get at you when you visit the zoo and tell me they wouldn’t. We look so eatable and defenseless because compared to them we are. They would own the woods.

[scootergirl]

This is what comes to mind for me – interesting question by the way. I’m thinking, ironically so, that the only animal that remotely stands a chance in defeating humanity are humans themselves. A world population that will not be able to sustain itself …anger and continuing violence on a global level…and perhaps the scariest of all - human greed. All you have to do is look around us. It may not happen in our lifetime, or perhaps not even in the next 3 generations, but it may go down in this way nevertheless. Other than this, my other thought was some sort of flying insect. Hard to kill and with a deadly sting. :eek:

[EvilTOJ]

Ants. Army ants, bullet ants, carpenter ants, all of them. There’s billions and billions of them, and if they made concerted effort to kill us we could only stop them with fire.

[blindboyard]

Not locusts: he said no sudden super-intelligence, so locusts won’t be strategising to gather together in certain geographical areas to eliminate mankind’s foot supply.

Ants, just maybe. Wipe us out? Probably not. Kill loads of us? Maybe. I can see a load of those massive tropical ants eating a pygmy, but being English I’m used to small ants with limited offensive capabilities. I think I could kill them as fact as they could come for me, and tropical ants presumably can’t swim over oceans or survive the winter in a temperate climate. Mankind has pesticides and flamethrowers, as well as a sufficient range and sufficient numbers to survive just about anything the ants can throw at us. No working in underground sugar caves for us.

I’m voting for “none”. Animals big enough to pose a threat are too few, animals numerous enough don’t have enough individual offensive potential.

[Koxinga]

So gut flora isn’t worthy of consideration? If it were possible for an alien race to turn one category of animal against us such that it would unquestionably lead to the extinction of our species, I can’t see how gut flora would not be that one type of animal.

[EvilTOJ]

If you doubt me, check out South America’s armyants. When they get going they eat everything in sight that moves. If they decided the only way to satiate their hunger is to kill all humans we are well and truly fucked.

[chowching]

Goal:
Destroy humanity.
Methods:

1. Reproduce, reproduce, reproduce.
2. Pollute water supplies.
3. Destroy crops.
4. Attack other animals. (chickens, cows, pigs, sheeps, horses, etc.)
5. Attack humans. (preferably adults)
6. Destroy power sources.
7. Destroy means of transportation.

In my opinion, rats can do these things. Rats will be able to do much damage but I think humanity will be able to handle this.

[bengangmo]

Without the ability to devise at least rudimnetary strategy I don’t think any animal can.

Given enough intelligence to work together as a team (perhaps in the same manner wolves hunt?) I think that a LOT could.

Rats for one
Mosquitos for another - a sudden epidemic of Dengue is going to be a pretty huge problem IF a mosquito had enough intelligence to realise it could spread the disease. Then after the dengue comes Cholera and all the other diseases associated with masses of unburied dead.

Ants I would second - did you see the ants in Indy Jones and the crystal skull?

If wasps could organise themselves it would be pretty disastorous for us as well. The first step would be to breed breed breed…then after that…

[Maastricht]

Bacteria, like Sunspace said.

Case in point: The Black Plague, a strain of bacteria, wiped out almost a third of the European population at one time. Says Wikipedia:

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. It is widely thought to have been an outbreak of plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis…
…The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30% – 60% of Europe’s population, reducing the world’s population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in 1400.

Similarly, the Spanish flu.

The pandemic lasted from June 1918 to December 1920, spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. Between 50 and 100 million died, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history. Even using the lower estimate of 50 million people, 3% of the world’s population died of the disease. Some 550 million, or 32% (≈1/3), were infected.

[Shalmanese]

A simple moat of flowing water is enough to stop any ants.

[Alka_Seltzer]

Within the limits of the OP, no boost in intelligence, none could do us a great deal of harm directly. The worst they could do would be to wipe themselves out, leaving a massive hole in the ecosystem. For example, many flowering plants rely on bees for pollination. Here is a list of crops pollinated by them. You need to invoke some kind of mind-controlling magic to make direct attack more than an inconvenience.

@YogSosoth

When I thought of this topic, I was kind of thinking about ants. They outnumber us something like a million to one. In swarms, they are frightening and deadly, and their size allows them to get in many places that bigger animals may not be able to break in. Plus, they are everywhere. If ants decide to rise up against humanity, probably 90% of us would be eaten within the first day. I don’t see humanity surviving against ants.

Ants are mostly concerned with survival. They have intricate nests, any resources they devote to attacking us reduces the amount of food they can forage. If they attack in numbers, their colonies will quickly collapse. If the whole population swarms at us, they can’t do much damage. They are slow moving and can’t travel far, and the more concentrated they are the easier they are to kill. I seriously doubt they can detect people at a distance of more than a few inches. They communicate by releasing trails of pheremones, which other ants follow. I can defeat a swarm of ants attempts to attack me by taking a couple steps. Worst case scenario, several thousand ants infiltrate your home when you are sleeping. In several hours, they are unlikely to find a way into your bed. They could irritate the hell out of us, but are no real threat.

And yes, this applies to soldier ants too. Farmers love them, because they kills pests, and they aren’t particularly hard to avoid. If they were capable of hunting humans they would already do so.

@bengangmo

Ants I would second - did you see the ants in Indy Jones and the crystal skull?

The acclaimed wildlife documentry. The ants were even more silly than the famous fridge incident.

@YogSosoth

Fish are an interesting one. While I don’t think they can kill us through direct contact, imagine if all fish in the ocean and rivers somehow swim away from us and hide. It would wreck oceanlife. I don’t know how much of humanity depends on the ocean for meat, but its gotta be a large number. Could all fish swimming away from humans and other predators destroy humanity? Not all of us of course, but enough to make life very difficult?

They can’t effectively hide from sonar and trawler nets. Again, a change in behaviour which leads to fish stocks collapsing would do us the most damage, but that can’t wipe us out. It would cause a terrible famine, but human population levels would adjust to match our remaining food sources.

@Sunspace

I vote for bacteria. Specifically, the ones that cause the flesh-eating disease. One day, you wake up with a pain in your arm. The next day, you’re dead. What if that was happening to entire countries?

How would the bacteria infect everyone?

@Koxinga

If every person’s gut flora suddenly decided to invade the intestinal wall and cause sepsis, we’d all be toast in short order. Would that count?

They don’t have the ability to do this.

[Cicero]

@Sunspace

I vote for bacteria. Specifically, the ones that cause the flesh-eating disease. One day, you wake up with a pain in your arm. The next day, you’re dead. What if that was happening to entire countries?

Everyone knows only bananas are flesh eating.

[PapSett]

If it happens to be dogs, I am truly screwed.