Yeah, we're building a race of frog-people. It's a good time

Xander ,'Selfless'


Natter 63: Life after PuppyCam  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


Zenkitty - Jul 01, 2009 7:36:24 pm PDT #26970 of 30000
Every now and then, I think I might actually be a little odd.

sarameg, that eyelid-twitch thing happens to me when I'm under stress. Or when I think of my boss. Same thing.


billytea - Jul 01, 2009 8:03:29 pm PDT #26971 of 30000
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

DavidS "F2F5: I forget that everyone isn't us" Jun 18, 2009 8:22:40 pm PDT

Interesting, I'd missed that, and the follow-up:

Is that news? They are the only land predator that actively hunts humans.

::waits for billytea or Theo to correct him::

This isn't true. There are of course many species that don't normally hunt humans but will in some circumstances. That applies to tigers, lions, and IIRC most especially leopards. Black bears too - interestingly, if a brown bear is threatening you, it's probably because it felt threatened by you first; but if a black bear is doing so, it's probably peckish. Nonetheless, I'd agree that they don't count (possible exception of the leopard, which doesn't seem to take much to become a man-eater), because it's not their common behaviour. The polar bear most certainly differs in this regard.

However, the point at which we're being too narrow is in limiting ourselves to mammalian predators. The shark and the crocodile, of course, are not land-based; but there are other reptiles that fit the bill. I give you the anaconda, reticulated python, African rock python, Burmese python and possibly (if the human is small enough) even the Australian scrub python or the boa constrictor. Interestingly, there's a now extinct eagle from New Zealand that may at one time also hunted humans - Haast's eagle would have been big enough to do so, and in the relatively short overlap between Maoris arriving and it going extinct, it probably wouldn't have learnt much fear of humans.

There is, however, at least one other land predator that, while not overly successful at hunting humans, will do so with impunity, should the opportunity arise. Take a guess what it might be.

Africa's driver ant. They will eat anything that is too slow to escape, and if that includes an old, infantile, sick or inebriated human, they will most certainly take advantage. I believe this makes them the only invertebrate in the world - I discount giant squid, who probably would eat a human, but have never been documented doing so - to view humans as prey.


StuntHusband - Jul 01, 2009 8:06:36 pm PDT #26972 of 30000
Electromagnetic candy! - Stark

(oooo - animal facts! much like my Tolkien trivia, but non-trivial and *useful*)

I remember reading about Haast's - but I hadn't realized there were so many large snakes.


Zenkitty - Jul 01, 2009 8:08:14 pm PDT #26973 of 30000
Every now and then, I think I might actually be a little odd.

There was an eagle big enough to prey on humans?


megan walker - Jul 01, 2009 8:08:18 pm PDT #26974 of 30000
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

F*cking f*ck. California is starting to give IOUs to welfare recipients. Seriously? Yeah, 'cause they can really hold out and wait for the cash. This is ridiculous.


billytea - Jul 01, 2009 8:19:50 pm PDT #26975 of 30000
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

There was an eagle big enough to prey on humans?

Yup. Died out about 1400 AD. It's speculation whether it did prey on humans, and it may have been wary of a full-grown man, but its staple prey were moas, which weighed up to 230 kg. It was big enough to take out a human.


Lee - Jul 01, 2009 8:31:40 pm PDT #26976 of 30000
The feeling you get when your brain finally lets your heart get in its pants.

My living room smells of kitty farts.


javachik - Jul 01, 2009 9:17:58 pm PDT #26977 of 30000
Our wings are not tired.

megan, for real? I've seen the headlines but stayed away from reading beyond, out of a feeling of despair.


-t - Jul 01, 2009 9:19:52 pm PDT #26978 of 30000
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

A million years ago, when I worked in a bank and Gray Davis was the State Comptroller, when they issued IOUs rather than checks, Wells Fargo honored them in the expectation that the state would one day make good on them. So it may not be as bad as it sounds. But it's still bad.


DavidS - Jul 01, 2009 9:55:19 pm PDT #26979 of 30000
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

I guess it's a good week to be donating to a California soup kitchen.

I am corrected on the man-hunting critters. Even amongst mammals I think leopards probably count. Whether a cheetah would go after Nutty is a subject for debate, however.

I like thinking about the Haast eagle swooping down on Antonin Scalia and dragging him (kicking) off into the sky.

I'm surprised about black bears since they seem to be the big pussies of the ursine world, constantly getting treed by kittens and fierce looking voles and whatnot.