# Why do animals fear humans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 24, 2004, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-animals-fear-humans/236073 "2004-03-24T04:03:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-animals-fear-humans/236073/21 "2004-03-25T07:17:48Z")
We smell like carnivores (well, most of us do) since we eat meat. Thus, mammals with a good sense of smell, and who are herbivores (prey)\* stay away. Also, if you look at an animal and move towards it, it show interest- most animals show interest when they want to eat you. šŸ˜ƒ - This is why I think some vegans have been attacked by Mtn. Lions. ---
**Author:** ![Neptune83](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e495f1/32.png) [@Neptune83](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neptune83)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2018, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-animals-fear-humans/236073/22 "2018-02-12T23:21:11Z")
I know that a very great many of the earlier posts have merit. Unfortunately modern sciences can not grasp the concepts which are evident in inherent behavior. The posts which referred to Darwin, Bears and bobcats failed to grasp an undeniable truth. Even in the quantum world ā€œnothing can exist beyond contact with the observer.ā€ Simply by observing the hypothesis even the unobserved changes. In this instance it is the animals behaviors. To put it simply human instinct is an inherited trait (I use that word loosely.) The animals of the Galapago and the Tundra were unexposed to man and, as it is understood, they had no ā€œimmunities.ā€ Every creature on this planet fears man for a good reason. We are THE apex predator. Only Polar Bears and Hippopotamus seek out man as an act of predation. One from lack of exposure and the other because we avoid them! Even sharks avoid us because we will hunt them out of existence with impunity! You donā€™t learn to avoid us out of sympathy, it is because we hunt in packs and we always hit our mark! Keep in mind that Man did not carve out his place by sympathizing with his food and neither did the gray whale keep his by being curious. The gray whale isnt extinct because we stopped hunting them. And the bobcat stopped eating kangaroos because MAN started to protect them. Canine even became separate species because we chose to feed/breed certain traits. I profess that that I have no place in the academic community, but even Einstein started out as a patent clerk. ---
**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:** [February 12, 2018, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-animals-fear-humans/236073/23 "2018-02-12T23:34:50Z")
Yes, **Neptune83** , humans are, indeed, badasses, and everyone in this (14-year-old) thread knows that. Thatā€™s not the question. The question is, how do _animals_ know it? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2018, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-animals-fear-humans/236073/24 "2018-02-13T00:08:30Z")
> [@Neptune83](#): > > And the bobcat stopped eating kangaroos because MAN started to protect them. Just guessing, but could it be that bobcats donā€™t eat kangaroos because they live on different continents? cochrane, who has seen many bobcats in Arizona, but not one kangaroo. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2018, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-animals-fear-humans/236073/25 "2018-02-13T00:16:26Z")
Oh, and hippopotamuses donā€™t prey on people. Theyā€™re just highly territorial and quite easily pissed off. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2018, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-animals-fear-humans/236073/26 "2018-02-13T01:30:50Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > ā€¦ > > Nor is it unfamiliarity. In fact it seems to be precisely the opposite. All the fear of humans seems to be either learned or an inherited response. There are numerous accounts of people arriving on uninhabited islands and finding the animals quite unafraid of humans. And these were not species that were without any predators, just species without mammalian predators. Consider this account from Darwin describing a scene on the Galapagos Islands. > > Darwinā€™s work on the Beagle journey has numerous mentions of similar instances where birds would perch trustingly close to humans. And these included birds that had natural predators. > ā€¦ Too true. I was thinking of the Darwin quote when I started reading this thread. The book it was in juxtaposed it with the quote from the earliest sailors to visit the Galapagos, where a bird would land on the officerā€™s arm to drink from the jug as he poured a drink of water. And a generation later, where the birds kept 6 to 10 feet or more away at least. IMHO from what Iā€™ve read, there are several mechanisms - for the smarter mammals there is learning. Cats (as mentioned) have to learn hunting skills from mama, although some is instinctive. They also learn to associate certain situations with danger. Iā€™m planning a trip to Africa in the near future, and one of the things that Iā€™ve read about is how Jeeps and Land Cruisers meander all over without being perceived as threatening or as lunch. The explanation suggests this is because boxes on wheels spewing hot smoke with a writhing mass of arms and heads poking out is not recognized as a threat or a lunch by the local creatures. Presumably if we have too many cases of shooting Cecil the lion from a jeep, the local creatures will get the hint. Birds and stupider animals have more difficult learning curves; in that case, I think it is an instinctive ā€œskittishnessā€ gene. As Silver S. mentions, there is a range of creatures whose skittishness in certain situations is dialed up or down by various degrees. When dialed too high, they miss out on meals by being jumpy. When dialed too low, they are meals. Presumably nature has evolved a means to fine-tune this very quickly - the gene determining skittish level is easily mutated, and so evolution has to constantly select for the right level - and can therefore adapt very easily. Also consider human fear of snakes or spiders - generally fairly widespread. There is a certain level of fear or revulsion (although intelligence can overcome it) that is instinctual even in a ā€œblank slateā€ mammal like ourselves. ---
**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:** [February 13, 2018, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-animals-fear-humans/236073/27 "2018-02-13T02:49:34Z")
> [@](#): > > Iā€™m planning a trip to Africa in the near future, and one of the things that Iā€™ve read about is how Jeeps and Land Cruisers meander all over without being perceived as threatening or as lunch. Certainly consistent with my momā€™s trip to Africa this past summer. A lioness rubbed right up against the side of her vehicle, so close that Mom (had she been insane) could have reached down and petted her. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2018, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-animals-fear-humans/236073/28 "2018-02-13T03:34:43Z")
> [@Neptune83](#): > > Every creature on this planet fears man for a good reason. We are THE apex predator. Only Polar Bears and Hippopotamus seek out man as an act of predation. Ha! Youā€™ve obviously never spent a summer evening in Northern Minnesota, when the mosquitoes come out. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2018, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-animals-fear-humans/236073/29 "2018-02-13T03:42:54Z")
> [@Eats\_Crayons](#): > > Anedcdotal answer: > Likewise, I captured two pregnant feral cats, to prevent a feral cat population explosion. Babies were born into captivity. One Momcat remained pretty nasty. Her kittens were friendly and socialized to accept human contact while Momcat sulked from under the bedā€¦ everything looked promising. > > But one day, the foster-human walked into the room. Momcat hissed. All babies, as if on cue, also hissed at the human. Same thing the next day. Human walked into room, cue kittens: ā€œPsst!ā€ They were learning from Momma! > > (And 5 week old kittens have THE most pathetic hiss ever heard. Sounds like a sneeze.) > > The kittens were by then weaned, and so were isolated from Momcat. They promptly forgot about their ā€œhiss at the humanā€ training and were loveable pets. > > So quite a bit of the ā€œhumans are evilā€ seems to be a learned response from Momma. My landlady Cherie breeds, raises, sells, and shows Samoyed dogs. Recently, a litter of three was born to a mother named Azure (nickname, ā€œZā€). Z was not raised in Cherieā€™s loving home, and is quite hostile to most of the humans in the house when sheā€™s in the whelping box area with her puppies. So Z was given very limited time with the puppies after they were weaned, because Cherie didnā€™t want the puppies to learn that hostility from her. ---
**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2018, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-animals-fear-humans/236073/30 "2018-02-13T05:40:52Z")
On this subject I would appreciate confirmation and refutation of the claim that animals with binocular vision are usually but not always predatory animal, and that some animals will have a greater fear response in this case. Unfortunately I was looking for modern info based on this theory but have come up empty. I doubt that it is a primary reason, but does seem to be a logical contributing factor. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-animals-fear-humans/236073.md?page=1)