• @[email protected]
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    15822 days ago

    “He’s running so slow…”

    1 hour later

    “How can he still be running like that?”

  • scytale
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    2722 days ago

    “I don’t know why they’re running, but let’s chase them!”

  • @[email protected]
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    1522 days ago

    I know it’s a joke. But would a wolf consider a human an apex predator? What about bears? Do these animals fear humans? I can’t say I’m familiar with them. I figured they wouldn’t, in most circumstances. I would think their default stance towards us is that we’re their prey

    • @[email protected]
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      2422 days ago

      We are certainly not their prey and without modern urban sprawl forcing animals into urbanized areas they would avoid humans as much as possible and this has been true for thousands of years.

      Humans are the ones wielding fire after all.

    • @[email protected]
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      1122 days ago

      The bears and coyotes around here hide from me! Even if I try and creep on 'em, they still usually sense me and run.

    • @[email protected]
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      622 days ago

      Most animals know humans are too much trouble to mess with.

      Sure, you can kill one human. But next thing you know your whole species has gone extinct, or worse, has been domesticated into pocket yappy dogs that can’t breathe properly.

      In places where we’ve been around long enough staying away from humans has practically been bred into every surviving predator’s instincts by now (which is what makes polar bears so terrifying, they’re about the only dangerous predator that doesn’t have this instinct yet, and probably never will, now that murdering whole species has become a bit of a bad look); anything that considered us prey and didn’t learn not to simply doesn’t exist anymore.

      Wolves in particular (in the few places where they survive) definitely know not to mess with us, except maybe in the frozen depths of Canada, and so do most bears (again, with possible exceptions in the least populated bits of North America) except polar ones.

  • Troy
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    1722 days ago

    One time, I was in the arctic doing some research. On a snowmobile, in winter, we crest a hill and see a couple of wolves pigging out on a caribou. I’m riding in the toboggan, and I start telling at the driver: “go go go!” They proceeded to chase our snowmobile for like a mile, with no hope at all of catching us, but running anyway. Like dogs chasing tires, I think they had no choice. Instincts are strong.

  • @[email protected]
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    6122 days ago

    I mean, the ability to run long distances without tiring is kind of what makes humans an apex predator. We can out-endurance just about every other creature. Most ancient human hunting techniques involved just wounding an animal, and then literally chasing it until it got too tired to keep going.

    Wolves are very similar, which is what made us such natural hunting companions. The co-evolution of humans and dogs is an extremely interesting rabbit hole, if anyone is looking for one.

    All that to say, the wolf would understand the need to run more than just about any other animal. A bear would work better here. A wolf would just see us running and think ‘game recognizes game’, just like they already did eons ago :3

  • @[email protected]
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    1322 days ago

    Let’s say it’s part of a mating ritual. I know this is not true, but I believe it gets the point across.

  • @[email protected]
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    1622 days ago

    I say this to myself when I see people jogging and I really just want to yell “what are you running from!?”

  • @[email protected]
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    3221 days ago

    Jogging is practice for how humans killed pretty much all the megafauna in the world: exhaustion hunting.

  • @[email protected]
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    1621 days ago

    So apex that most of us outsource our hunting and farming, which makes us fat and slow unless we purposefully burn energy for no other purpose than to burn it.

    • @[email protected]
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      21 days ago

      I mean yes, literally… We were able to completely supplant the natural order. For better or worse.

    • @[email protected]
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      221 days ago

      So apex that even hunters need firearms because they’re too fat and slow to hunt without them nowadays, and unable to improvise and use self made weapons like the og hunters did.

      I guess people that drive a forklift are “apex powerlifters” too.

      • @[email protected]
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        421 days ago

        Smart apex hunters always conserve as much energy as they can during a hunt. Because you don’t know when your next meal might show up. And firearms do make hunting a more sure thing. Hunting game, of any kind, is high risk-- higher reward effort. Most hunters go home empty handed or with little to show for the effort. But, if you do get it right, the effort can be handsomely rewarded.

        So if you are smart enough to develop ranged weapons, you eagerly use them to hunt supper.

        • @[email protected]
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          21 days ago

          But could the average hunter still hunt without the help of modern technology? Those who are entirely unable to do so are obviously not apex predators.

          A lion can hunt any day without relying on a rifle, the vast majority of hunters could not.

          So if you are smart enough to develop ranged weapons

          Hunters that can build their own bows or spears and are able to hunt with them are genuine apex predators, that’s fair.

          Those who are completely reliant on industrially produced high tech firearms bought in a store, and would be outcompeted by any house cat without them, are not.

          • @[email protected]
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            120 days ago

            A lion can hunt because they come with weapons biologically attached. Humans not so much. And even you could fashion a spear with little effort. Which by your definition would make you a apex predator. And it did so for millennia.

            I’m an old toolmaker that still has a small shop. I could make firearms from scratch if I wanted to. There is nothing special or complex about them. But I choose to purchase them from stores. So perhaps that demotes me from being a apex predator.

        • @[email protected]
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          120 days ago

          Seafood requires far less effort to collect. Make lobster traps and trotlines which are catching food while you can do other tasks at the same time. Seaweed for some veggies on the side.

          • @[email protected]
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            119 days ago

            Seafood requires a lot of expensive resources to acquire. Boats, nets, traps, baits, access to the water, and not to mention the inherent risk of being on the ocean. Better to hunt herbivores on land.

            • @[email protected]
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              119 days ago

              Sure you can spend a lot if you want, but I have caught crabs with a bit of string. Seen people catch stuff bare handed as well.

              • @[email protected]
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                118 days ago

                Fishing is fun and good, but you still need access to water with a fish living in it. But a sharp stick or a rock is still cheaper and easier. Even a bow and arrow is very low tech and easily fashioned.

                • @[email protected]
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                  18 days ago

                  Well I live on the coast in the UK, so there is quite a bit of access to water. But even inland you should have lakes/rivers with fish in them too, even if they can be a bit harder to catch.

                  Not sure there, most seafishing methods are illegal on freshwater here.

  • Pennomi
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    5522 days ago

    Dogs do love a good jog though. Give that good boi a bit of kibble and then see how he feels.

  • HSR🏴‍☠️
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    9922 days ago

    I mean, if animals engage in pretend fights and other forms of play, it seems that they can on some level grasp the idea of practicing or doing something for fun.