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This sounds like an exaggerated claim, although it’s hard to search for this and get any meaningful results proving it or disproving it. If it were to happen w
by GuiA 7y ago
This sounds like an exaggerated claim, although it’s hard to search for this and get any meaningful results proving it or disproving it.
If it were to happen with humans, you could expect it to happen with other species. Does a lion who taste (say) another lion get similarly hooked on lion flesh? If not, what would be special about human flesh?
Some suggest that animals hunting humans would likely do so because they’re older/injured animals who have a harder time catching their natural prey.
- AdrianB1 7y agoWhy would a lion try to eat another lion if humans are so easy to hunt? And how would a lion taste another lion? Killing cubs? It happens, but the lioness is putting a strong fight, it is easier to eat humans.
- the_af 7y agoMale lions kill cubs as part of their natural lifecycle. When a new male lion takes over a pride, by killing or driving away the former leader, it will kill all cubs. I don't think lionesses are very successful at preventing this. From Wikipedia (article: Lion): "When one or more new males oust the previous males associated with a pride, the victors often kill any existing young cubs, perhaps because females do not become fertile and receptive until their cubs mature or die. Females often fiercely defend their cubs from a usurping male but are rarely successful unless a group of three or four mothers within a pride join forces against the male." What you say is true however: lions won't select other adult lions as their prey, for obvious reasons.
- AdrianB1 7y agoSo it is not for eating, like suggested before. Thank you for the confirmation.
- greenhatman 7y agoIt's about how easy it is. In some parts of Africa you do get Lions that prey on humans. If Lions who attack humans always get killed, only the ones that don't survives and reproduces.
- GuiA 7y agoThat initial line of reasoning makes sense, but then it becomes another argument. If it's about opportunity (makes sense, catching a human does seem easier than an antelope) rather than anything intrinsic to human flesh, then why would killing them so that they don't reproduce matter? "Opportunity" does not get transmitted genetically.
- the_af 7y agoI think the actual argument is about learned behavior, not genetics. Lions who realize humans are easy prey will eat nothing else. So you must get rid of the lion somehow, and killing it is the easiest way. Otherwise the same lion will hunt humans again.
- the_af 7y ago> If it were to happen with humans, you could expect it to happen with other species. Predators often select the weak within their natural prey, such as the young or the old. So it does happen with other species. > Does a lion who taste (say) another lion get similarly hooked on lion flesh? Lions won't select other lions as prey because lions are notoriously dangerous game. Unarmed humans are very easy targets, however. That's the "hook".