In some ways, this fervor of killing is related to an innate fear of animals that can kill us, the so-called monsters of our myths and legends made flesh. In other parts of the world, humans have killed lions, tigers, leopards, crocodiles even sharks. This represents bears being pushed out of 98% of their original home range. Once, as many as 50,000 Grizzly Bears lived in the lower 48 states of the US, but now there are only an estimated 1,500 of the bears left. We’ve decimated populations of bears in North America and before that in Europe. Over the centuries, humans have fought with many big predators and still do. Even old children stories like the Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf or Goldilocks and the Three Bears reflect our very human uneasiness with large predators. These fears might be the moldering remains of survival instincts which allowed our ancestors to survive in a world filled with dangerous predators now largely vanquished. The water was cool and deliciously fresh, but something about seeing nothing but darkness beneath my swimming limbs gave me the willies. Remember the fear of a monster under the bed or hiding in your closet as a child? The fear of the dark? I remember swimming in a muddy reservoir in the summer. Still, this isn’t how it’s always been and a part of our brain knows it. For anyone who wants to go out in an epic battle of human versus the wild, you’ll have to really try hard at it. In a similar vein, USA Today reports that Florida has had only 24 fatal alligator attacks on humans since 1973.īy the numbers, the CDC reports that Americans are most likely to die of heart disease, followed by cancer and accidents. I personally have never seen a mountain lion in the wild, but have seen bears, both black and brown a number of times. When looking at these numbers, it’s important to remember people are much more likely to see a black bear than a mountain lion as well. Wide Open Spaces reports that the same number, 25 fatal black bear attacks occurred in North America in just 20 years. Although it’s much more common, fatal attacks from bears are also rare. According to Wide Open Spaces, there are only 25 fatal mountain lion attacks on record for North America from 1890 to 2017. Sure, people are sometimes killed, even partially consumed by mountain lions, but it’s exceedingly rare. Throughout the United States outside of perhaps rural Alaska, there’s little direct animal threat posed to humans. This is pretty sensible for most of the world, especially the developed world. Often as humans, we seem to focus more on our role as predator and think of times when an animal eats us as something unnatural or out of the ordinary. Humans may be top predators now, but we were prey not long ago.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |