# Who’s on your Mount Rushmore of apex predators? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 4, 2026, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830 "2026-09-04T22:21:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/21 "2026-09-05T02:25:53Z")
I think I’ve read that an orca can take a great white. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/22 "2026-09-05T02:40:52Z")
But can an orca take Randy Orton? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/23 "2026-09-05T02:52:40Z")
As that Steven Spielberg documentary from 50 years ago showed us, a Great White beat the living shit out of an Orca and then treated itself to a snack of seasoned fisherman. Didn’t even break a sweat. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/24 "2026-09-05T17:00:55Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > I want to include [Terror Birds](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devincenzia), because even though they aren’t the most impressive predator in history, an ecosystem where the apex predator is a bird is awesome. Theropod dinosaurs were just re-asserting their claim, after that Series of Unfortunate Events back at the end of the Cretaceous… ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/25 "2026-09-05T17:29:51Z")
I’ll agree with the polar bear. They, unlike other normal bears, will actively stalk humans as prey. Grizzlies will do it at times, but not as a rule. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/26 "2026-09-05T17:38:56Z")
I will second the megalodon, the largest ever sea predator, whose diet literally included whales. A genuine badass. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/27 "2026-09-05T18:58:18Z")
Pound for pound: dragonflies. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/28 "2026-09-05T19:03:54Z")
Since it’s (pretty) obvious that we can’t overlap every possible geographic area, time period, or environment, I’m going to nominate the domestic cat and its close relatives. It’s an almost unbelievably successful predator in its little niche and much better than larger cats. I think there’s room for it among the faces on Mt. Rushmore. Plus, it often hunts just for fun. It’s a damn hobby. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/29 "2026-09-05T19:14:52Z")
Yeah, I’m pretty sure they’d kill us if they were big enough. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/30 "2026-09-05T19:17:56Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > Homo Sapiens Sapiens > > There’s in truth no competition. This is the real answer. Once homo sapiens left africa about 70,000 years ago, we drove a lot of the other apex predators into extinction. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/31 "2026-09-05T19:23:00Z")
> [@Common\_Tater](#): > > But humans are no match one on one with wolves or bears and other critters. I think I read one way we’d kill apex predators is we’d just throw a spear at them from a large distance, then track them waiting for them to die from the infection and blood loss. Or we would wait until they were asleep in a cave, then we’d start a fire at the entrance and wait for them to die of carbon monoxide poisoning. Since animals are terrified of fire they wouldn’t run towards the entrance to try to escape. Humans are weak af when we are one on one and unarmed. But thats because the last few million years we evolved to use weapons and work as groups. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/32 "2026-09-05T19:51:08Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > I think I’ve read that an orca can take a great white. I’ve read that orcas will go after a great white in teams of 2. Basically they pop it like a zit to get the liver out (apparently it’s like a third of the shark’s body mass, and very fatty and tasty) and leave the rest. Scientists have noticed that when orcas take up residence in a new part of the ocean, the sharks migrate elsewhere. So yeah, I think any animal that can nosh a great white like a tube of liverwurst probably qualifies. ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/33 "2026-09-05T20:31:36Z")
Maybe. > **[Livyatan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livyatan)** > > Livyatan is an extinct genus of macroraptorial sperm whale, containing one known species: L. melvillei. The genus name was inspired by the biblical sea monster Leviathan, and the species name by Herman Melville, the author of the famous novel Moby-Dick about a white bull sperm whale. Herman Melville often referred to whales as "Leviathans" in his book. It is mainly known from the Pisco Formation of Peru during the Tortonian stage of the Miocene epoch, about 8.9–9.9 million years ago (mya); how... ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/34 "2026-09-05T20:43:07Z")
Oh, this is a legit apex. Meg needs to look elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![StringsandHammers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stringsandhammers/32/17933_2.png) [@StringsandHammers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StringsandHammers)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/35 "2026-09-05T22:19:22Z")
I love how Honey badgers don’t back down from anything, hyenas, poisonous snakes, cheetahs, crocodiles, lions. A honey badger doesn’t GAF.. A lot of the times when a honey badger fights something it’s not even hungry, it just wants to put the other apex predators in their place, kinda show the schoolyard who’s boss. They are goofy looking and not terribly coordinated but its tenacious attitude alone makes it almost impervious to fear and physical harm. It’s easy to be a bully when you’re the biggest animal in the ocean. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2026, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/36 "2026-09-05T23:27:16Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > So yeah, I think any animal that can nosh a great white like a tube of liverwurst probably qualifies. [For every charm, there is a counter-charm](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwVx-xm8rlE). Great white sharks flee orcas, orcas flee pilot whales. Not because of predation, but because pilot whales are annoying as hell. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2026, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/37 "2026-09-06T18:44:01Z")
Regina George is the Apex Predator. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-s-on-your-mount-rushmore-of-apex-predators/1032830/38 "2026-09-09T21:41:48Z")
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