What characteristics should humanity's predator have?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Okay, so let’s just say you’ve been holding down a job in sales for the last few years. You’ve worked hard, but you don’t think you’ve wowed anyone upstairs… until your promotion comes through.

“Congratulations,” your boss tells you after pulling you aside one afternoon. “You’ve been promoted. Your new rank within the company will be that of a god. There are plenty of benefits, your own office, divinity…”

“Whoa,” you say. “What do you mean, I’m God?”

“A god, lowercase. We have an opening upstairs, you see, after one of the other gods failed on their appointed task. This task, and the job, now falls to you.”

You swallow, your new reality sinking in. “Which is…?”

Your boss smiles. “You see, humanity has been at the top of the food chain for too long. Your job will be to design a predator that can inject some… humility into the species. But no viruses or bugs, we want something with teeth, so to speak. Something which will hunt, kill and eat the human animal. What do you say?”

You accept, of course. How could you turn down your dream job?

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Basically, what is your design for a species that could displace humans from the top of the food chain? No magic, no technology and no pandemics, just good old fashioned predator-prey dynamics.

Go.

2

It has to be bullet proof.

Or, swarming, and resistant to high temperatures. I’d say something like Flesh eating Locust Swarms would do the trick, even with flame throwers, it’d be tricky to kill them all. Imagine trying to kill a swarm of flesh eating locust as they descended upon New York, London, LA, etc? It’s be mayhem!

3

No magic? Geez, this god gig is not all I would have expected.

I’m thinking of a species that hunts in pairs. The females are drop-dead gorgeous and externally indistinguishable from human females.

The females of the predator species lure human male prey into a helpless position, and the male predator, who is larger and stronger than human males and is equipped with slashing claws and teeth, finishes off the human. Voila, dinner for two.

Eventually these predators would displace humans, as only females and gay men would be left and obviously reproduction rates are going to go way down.

I see some logical flaws in this plan, but it’s a start.

4

I wouldn’t go with the predator/prey dynamics; I’d opt for competition for the ecological niche … smaller resource requirement and higher productivity and more efficient approach to aggressive situations … smaller creatures for food and space resources, simpler requirement for food and shelter, more reliance on skill and simpler technology for weaponry … I’m thinking Elves.

Slight woodland archers …

But they don’t meet your requirements to “hunt, kill, and eat”.

I’d make longer, meaner, social ferrets; they are fast, mean, and good at escaping and hiding. I’d keep them the same circumference, but much larger, like a horror-movie anaconda …

5

Intelligent diseases are out? Well, then, let me introduce Bob the super-rat.

Not much bigger than regular rats. Smarter, though, and able to coordinate plans in groups. Unafraid of water or fire. Sees in dim light. Fecund. Furred, and comfortable in temperatures from -40C to +60C. Opposable thumbs. All the curiosity of a raccoon. And an unfussy palate that will eat anything from carrion and mouldy vegetable to fresh, plump human meat.

While the super-rat can co-ordinate with others of its kind for short-term goals, it doesn’t need larger plans. Thus, there is no headquarters or controlling individual that can be eliminated to end an attack.

6

…No technology? Tech is one of the things humans are pretty good at, compared with the other animals - guns and other weapons are why we do pretty well at putting meat on the table. Come to that, if we were faced with some kind of species predator, tech is what we’d probably try to use to take out said nemesis. For the other side, I’d want any predator I designed to give better than it got.

Is the job to teach humankind any kind of humility? …Well, sir, having given the matter more consideration, I’m afraid that I must decline your generous offer.

7

Physically one on one in a real world universe where we get to use technology to defend ourselves, but they can’t use technology or diseases against us? Well in that case nothing really has much of chance against us. If prepared we can pretty easily kill almost any biologically based creature we can identify via technology.

Unless something is a leg up on us technologically it/they don’t stand a chance in the long run. Being faster, smarter, larger etc. than humans is not of much use if we have a mini-gun and you don’t.

8

Humans are allowed to use technology - your creations can’t. The point is a creature which can give humans a run for our money, even with technology on our side.

That’s why you need to get creative. Todderbob suggested flesh eating locusts, which would be both hard to shoot and be effective in clogging a minigun’s components.

9

My critters start out small, perhaps mouse sized, but continue to grow until something kills them. The smaller ones can fly, but eventually grow too heavy. They breed fast, are ravenous and prefer swarm/pack tactics.

They can get nutrition from a very wide range of foods, but have a taste for humans. They can extract energy from almost anything capable of oxidation, if it isn’t too corrosive or such; something like gasoline gives them the equivalent of a sugar rush, with it’s high energy content. They also have bones and teeth made of metals, deposited instead of calcium. Their teeth and claws are therefore strong enough to tear through softer metals and wood.

They actually find much of human technology quite edible; they’ll eat a car and leave not much left besides it’s windows and the bones of the people inside. And they are perfectly capable of catching them; the little ones can fly in a swarm up to a car even in motion, and piranha-swarm it to pieces. It won’t get far once they reach the gas tank and guzzle the fuel down either. They also can bring down skyscrapers by getting inside the walls like rats, and eating the steel I-beams. They in fact have built in instincts to attack and disable human technology, as well as humans.

They are fast and strong, naturally. Their skin is composed of an inner layer of organic armor, with an outer layer as good at camouflage as an octopus ( better than a chameleon ). Since spider silk has been seriously considered being used for bulletproof vests, their organic armor should be resistant to gunfire.

As far as built in weapons goes, besides the metallic teeth and claws, they have a froglike striking tongue, tipped with a stinger that uses a fast neurotoxin. It should also be biologically possible for them to have biologically generated plastic explosives ( biologically generated plastics already exist ), perhaps used as their equivalent of fat; in desperate situations they could swarm their human opponents and explode.

10

Meh. Why worry making one from scratch when movies give you several ready made?

Aliens. Lots of acid-blooded aliens. Or maybe zombies. Zombies are nice.

11

Easily killed with insecticide foggers or fire or etc. etc. . The point is that sans technology or diseases/germs no biological entity has a chance against our technology. We can kill anything with almost trivial ease with technology.

12

Not if they resist or ignore insecticides. As for fire; not only do we have limited fuel but there’s the tiny problem of self immolation if we try that on anything that’s in among us, like an attacking swarm.

Only because all our natural enemies are disorginized, aren’t that determined and aren’t attacking our technology.

To use my own creations as an example, how long will our technology be very effective when fast breeding critters are tearing it all down ? We can’t guard every power cable, railroad line, underground pipe and piece of machinery.

13

Sunspace has the right idea. We already have our share of pests that despite our best technological efforts, we are still unable to completely eradicate. Look at the cockroach, the rat, fruit flies, raccoons, fleas and ticks just to name a few. Now what if these pests were to become sapient and … evil? What if the rats of NiMH were able to reproduce to prodigious amounts and educate their young?

Part of making an animal a successful predator to humans is it would have to be something that’s already among us, and has suddenly become self-aware. At this point something big like saber toothed tigers wouldn’t thrive, it’ll have to be smaller and able to swarm.

14

Since the OP didn’t mention it, I’ll assume that my creatures will be placed into existence with a proper number and distribution to give them a fighting shot at taking humanity down a peg. The Op also didn’t specify that my creature had to eliminate humanity, merely be an efficient enough predator to reduce our numbers.

So, the creature will be based off of a rodent and will retain the fecundity, durability, and general ability to ingest most types of food materials. They breed fast but die early, a lifespan equaling that of a dog perhaps. They have been altered to have the body form of a medium primate, about 65-90 lbs for males, 45-65 lbs for females. Opposable thumbs, no fluffy fur, but a thick layer of fat to insulate against the cold. Skin can mimic most patterns and textures like an octopus does. Incisors have become modified, chisel like fangs; canines have been enlarged, molars like those of hyenas along with the jaw strength to crush bone. Venomous cytotoxin with a heavy paralytic component. Fingers, feet and hands have lamillae similar to that of large geckos allowing them extra climbing abilities. Excellent senses all around, though none as superiour as those of a sensory specialist. Echolocation. Ability to communicate basic information through ultrasonic frequencies during hunting. Advanced immune system, and prone to mutation during breeding.
They are intelligent enough to coordinate attacks and organize themselves into pair units. Both sexes care for offspring. In areas of plenty they may form larger packs based on family groups. Instinct is to den in places near human food resources but hidden. Can and does transmit diseases acting as a vector to humans while having immunity from basic mammal plagues like rabies and malaria. Uses it’s wastes as scent/ territorial markers on large food resources fouling them for human consumption due to aforementioned disease vector status.

15

We are not using our best technological efforts to combat pests. Take cane toads as an example - we’re trying to kill them off, but we’re not really trying. If it came down to a war of extermination, us versus them, it’s going to be an entirely different matter.

There’s going to be a physical limit to how smart these animals can be, just based on their size if nothing else.

16

This is fun.:slight_smile: I want to expand my idea a bit more.

My predators will not care for sick members of a group and will abandon the immediate area if they sense sickness. They can exist on significantly fouled water resources and have a gland to eliminate salt from brackish water. They can exist temporarily on oceanic level salt water provided they can find fresh resources within a week. They swim well and can hold their breath for several minutes.

They hunt by nabbing humans in isolated areas, or inside of homes. Victims are pounced and envenomated. Once the fast acting venom paralyzes the victim, they move in for the kill. They are clever enough to learn through mimicry, and can open doors or windows provided they are shown this by a parent, or through direct observation.

17

So, there are two approaches to this question.
1.) Small and impossible to shoot. This is the swarm of flesh devouring bugs. Really hard to kill without also killing everything else.
2.) Large and tech-safe. Much more what the boss is asking for, but very hard to pull off. You’d need something bullet proof to small arms fire; if humanity ever felt threatened by a large predator we’d organize for genocide and sweep the forests with automatic rifles. You could get by being vulnerable to heavy weapons (assuming you weren’t a lumbering T Rex), but you’d at least need to be able to shrug off bullets. I don’t think this is feasible given the size constraint.

My best answer here: something that is medium sized (think large dog), physically vicious, and can hide from the a line of gun toting humans walking shoulder to shoulder through the forest. Perhaps a nocturnal creature that burrows during the day, or maybe something that sleeps in the trees (or both…). They’d be a bitch to dig out.

18

The eating part is tricky. If it could be a plant that just kills people, it would be easy. It would just have to be a kudzu variant that releases a potent toxin into the watershed.

19

Mine look and act exactly like humans, lure them, kill them and eat them. Often they are charming.

20

They should have alpha predators, to pave the way for the pack to feed freely. These alphas should be exquisitely sensitive sociopaths, able to quickly pinpoint people’s emotional and psychological vulnerabilities and take all possible advantage of them. This way, resistance can be neutralized and confusion sown. Humanity themselves may even help the predators kill them off.