Start based on something that already thrives in cities…I’m thinking some sort of rodent, perhaps the squirrel. Now, make it so that the males of the species can only gain their nutrition from electricity and metal. Given their concentration in urban areas, they will almost certainly, and regularly, causing brownouts and the like. The females, on the other hand, would be pure carnivores, and get a sharper set of teeth to match. Given how few non-human animals live in cities, and that the power would be constantly flickering, they’d decimate cities in no time.
My predators are also nearly indistinguishable from humans at a distance, but certain characteristics give it away within about 5-10 feet.
They are intelligent, can learn and use tools and language and are able to pass as human in a crowd, or in dim lighting.
They function primarily at night, but can also operate in daylight. night is preferred because dim light makes blending in easier.
They are preternaturally quick and are substantially stronger than a human.
The reproductive rate is much faster - gestation is approximately half as long, and metabolic processes are much faster so they grow incredibly quickly - newborn to young adult in months rather than years.
Because of their metabolism, they must eat enormous amounts of food, and alcohol does not affect them as much as it does humans. They tend to lurk about in nightclubs to stalk their prey.
Are we going for destroy humanity or just cut down the numbers? Since everyone else is going for destroy, I’ll go for the typical predator route.
It preys on the young, old, and sick. Great camoflauge skills (octopus level). It looks like just a sheet of material and feels like a soft fluffy blanket, but then it covers your mouth so you can’t scream, smothers you, and ingests you by turning its stomach inside out like a starfish. It’s somewhat fragile so a healthy adult can break loose (and that’ll add some humility! ‘I just almost got eaten by a blanket!!’), but breeds rapidly and can hide almost anywhere, even just stuck flat against a wall.
Sure we can kill them, but can we ever be sure we killed them all?
I have to agree with Silver Tyger Girl – a lot of these posts describe a creature that eventually makes humans extinct, rather than just replacing us at the top of the food chain. I’d think a predator of humans would have to have superior intellect, since that is the root of our own survival. It also would have to be utterly devoid of compassion so it would be more prone to feed on the young and infirm (easier to hunt). Nazi death camp commanders come to mind.
Sounds pretty much like vampires, which was what I was going to suggest. (Except vampires that eat people instead of suck their blood, I guess.)
Valete,
Vox Imperatoris
I don’t have any idea whether this post will ever be read, because thread is so old. I would still like to write this, though.
The best predator for humans would be an animal that could hunt people in cities and avoid extinction. That would be the real test of predator fitness. A tiger can still sometimes snatch a villager in rural India, but such an animal would never survive in a city. It would be hunted down and killed. A catlike animal would never make it. They are just too dumb. A successful predator would need a superb ability to hide.
This predator would also need to be able to kill quickly: almost instantly. That way, it could lay in wait for a lone person, kill him without being seen or heard, and eat him in peace. This ability could be achieved through brute strength, but the more efficient method would be a deadly bite.
I think raccoons may evolve intelligence as a result of selective pressure created by their move to the cities. In the distant future, they might become almost as smart at people, but their intelligence would be oriented toward survival among humans. They might also become larger, and their paws might become even better than they are now at grasping and manipulating objects. And if they move more in the direction of carnivorous behavior their teeth might get sharper, longer, and might develop specializations for killing a human quickly, such as by grabbing one by the throat and instantly crushing the windpipe.
The ideal predator of humans would not be merely a larger, smarter raccoon. It might have evolved from a raccoon, but it would possess physical characteristics that would be completely unique. They might almost seem primate-like, but with a vicious set of teeth, and a mind like a steel trap, which thinks of nothing but murder.
They couldn’t be too big, or they would be unable to hide. But if size is a limiting factor, they would need to possess the strength and stealth of a leopard.
Perhaps, these intelligent creatures would gain more ability to stand upright. Also, with intelligence might come the idea of putting on human clothing so that at least from a distance they might be confused for a human.
The problem comes when a dead, partially eaten body is discovered in some dark alley. That would naturally start a huge “tiger hunt”. So, the only solution is for the body to be concealed very carefully. Maybe a really intelligent human predator would develop the foresight to do such a thing. Burying uneaten body parts, clothing, personal possessions… This would be very difficult to pull off. Even human murderers, no matter how intelligent, just can’t seem to master the art of covering their tracks. Most of them get caught, I think.
So this hypothetical predator would probably need to be even smarter than people! And it would need to snatch people and then make them disappear completely. In addition, they would probably need to develop the ability to know who will not be missed… Then these predators would have the ability to operate more-or-less unmolested, and the human population would possibly be more-or-less unaware of the danger. People would know of the threat, but they would generally assume the real danger existed in some other part of town.
Interesting, I’m glad this thread got revived. (Zombies! Not exactly an apex predator, but still threatening!)
Honestly I think humans already do a pretty good job of preying on each other. Sociopaths exist in about the right proportion to the rest of the population for a predator/prey relationship, even if they doesn’t usually go to the extent of eating flesh.
If you want a non-human predator… hm. How about something that can pass for a car? If it’s intelligent enough, it’ll take the shape of your car, and park right in front of it. Then you get inside… and are absorbed into the seat and digested…
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They sound a lot like skaven
Tribbles.
People think that they’re cute and they only eat grain. But once a planet is saturated with them, they metamorphose into their nightmarish predator form.
Hmmm…cockroaches come to mind.
Make 'em bigger, give 'em teeth and better flying capability, and make them impervious to bug sprays. And give them a taste for living flesh.
I think any apex predator is going to be remarkably humanoid in form and function. It’s going to almost have to be. It must be able to use tools, including our own, in attacking us. It must be able to consume what we do, and survive. It must be able to act independently, or in groups.
So basically an advanced human then, more resistant to fire or other damage, some ability to fly, or at least glide through the air, some sort of non-vocal or other communications system, superior eyesight, especially at night, completely able to readily understand, and use, any human tool, and enhanced healing capability.
Oh, and they should be able to resemble angels, in some form or another, perhaps some bio-luminescence combined with symmetrical attractive features. That will completely mind fuck every human on earth.
Regards,
-Bouncer-
I’d go a lot more… subtle.
I’d create a species which looks and acts completely human. Even to a cursory physical examination, they’d look just like you and me. However, they can’t breed with us, as they’re a completely different species.
Then give them the ability to blend into our society. Actually, they’re *better *at it than we are. They’ve got “it”- they’re much more socially adept and more *charismatic *than we are. Baseline humans can’t help but like them- as a rule, we’d find them very attractive and fascinating. We’d be attracted to them, but they would view us as prey- nothing more than animals to be exploited.
Basically, they’d be a *social *predator. They’d rise to the top of any organization. They’d be the “people behind the people”. They’d win any election against a human. They’d be the people living in the Hamptons, Monaco, and Dubai… and we’d be the prey animals dying to support their lifestyles. They’d be the televangelists, the supermodels, the blockbuster actors who are cast without having to even audition.
They wouldn’t kill us. They wouldn’t have to. We’d kill ourselves *for *them.
I think this has already been covered in a series of nature documentaries. Basically, I’d say something like that, with all its lifecycle, but also with aquatic varieties as well.
Choice number 2 would be basically the Ancient Enemy from Phantoms. Fast, amorphous, intelligent, every bit of it capable of regenerating, capable of mimicry and knowledge absorption, which puts it just above shoggoths in my view. See also “The Thing”.
Ben Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms.
Predators sometimes evolve into parasites, and from there to symbionts. Conquerors were like predators. Rulers are sometimes parasitic. The people you describe sound like symbiotic organisms.
I’m with CairoCarol. Just compromise the men; ridiculously easy.
The Aids virus? Spread by humanity’s most pleasurable activity? Long period of infectious activity, so it can spread swiftly?
Humanity
I would vote that whatever is chosen has a life cycle similar to cicaddas, where in much of the life cycle is as a nymph deep under ground (say 30 meters down), and the come out is occasional mass emergences. That way even if humanity could wipe out the wave that was on the surface they wouldn’t be able to eradicate the threat.
Mine is space based.
It is a swarm creature, hunts for planets in the goldilocks zone. When finding such a planet the creatures shed their egg carriers which fall into the planet’s gravity. The egg carriers seek non-rocks to inject the eggs, non-rocks being humans, animals, large enough plants, sea and water based animals are not immune from the egg carriers. Egg carriers inject between 10 - 1000 eggs into the host. Eggs grow, it doesn’t matter if the host is killed as long as the host’s body provides food for the eggs. Larva eats its way out of the host, forms a cocoon on the host to metamorphosis into second stage, which has flight capacity. Creatures are drawn to the radiation of the planet’s star. Since the creature is small in second stage, about the size of a praying mantis, it is housed, like a joey, in the “pouches” of the more mature creatures while maturing in space between stars. The egg drop goes on for 2 - 3 years. Humans can not mount a significant defense, in space, within that time frame – we don’t have the technology yet. Yes we can remove the eggs from some of the people, however there is a good likelihood we will kill the host in the process. We will not get to all the people infected. It has also infected much of our food supply. This creature does not kill all of humanity. But due to the large number of egg carriers released a significant portion of humans, as well as other earth based life forms are infected. It has teeth and it definitely humbles us.
HORTABADGERS!!! :eek: