Animal Instincts

golok

golok

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Oct 20, 2000
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I have read somewhere that if a man learns the ways of wild animals enough, he can live among them without fear of being attacked.

Take for example, the stories about scientists living among gorillas. Apparently, once a homo sapien behaves like a gorilla in a non-aggressive way, the gorilla will leave him alone.

I was wondering if this perspective could be taken a few steps further, like snakes, wolves and cougars. Can a person really learn their ways so thoroughly that eventually he could walk among them without fear of being attacked.

Impossible?
 
Check out Doug Peacock's book called Grizzly Years. He spent about 10-20 summers among them. Had some close calls, but he feels comfortable among them unarmed. Even if I were he, I wouldn't. Remember that the gorillas are herbivorous, whereas the Griz, cougar, etc. eat meat. Wolves may be a different story. A lot of naturalists feel that the risk of attack is very low, even if one does not "know their ways." However, I do know one trapper/guide in the Yukon who experienced what he considered aggressive behavior by wolves.
 
Seems to me all that "most encounters with wild predators are harmless" is mostly the result of centuries of critters learning something along the lines of --

"don't mess with the wierd two-legged things that smell funny. They might look soft, but if you threaten 'em there's a lot of loud noise and bright light and all of a sudden you're dead before you even get close."

I rather suspect in the coming years of our fuzzy-bunny-protect-Bambi age, there's gonna be a fair amount of re-education going on, along the lines of --

"well darn, no matter what mom said, these two-legged critters aren't all that dangerous after all. Kinda chewy and smell funny, but nice and slow and easy to catch.."

:D
 
Kaylee,

You have a good point. I once read in a doctoral dissertation by a U. of Alaska researcher that wolf attacks on humans were part of the native's oral history. As I recall, the researcher believed the accounts were true. I believe he theorized that attacking a lone hunter equipped with only a bow/spear was a reasonable risk for wolves (which is one reason the natives usually hunted in groups). However, when a hunter backed up his muzzleloader with even a black powder revolver from the Civil War era, the risk equation shifted.

My trapper friend who encountered the aggressive wolf behavior was half way up the McMillan River in the Yukon, where wolves don't see much hunting pressure.
 
Originally posted by golok
I have read somewhere that if a man learns the ways of wild animals enough, he can live among them without fear of being attacked.
Click to expand...

This is mostly pure myth. Gorillas are highly intelligent and are capable of a high level of learning. Most animals are incapable of this level of learning. In fact, 99% of all animals are invertebrates and their ability to learn is limited to their immediate survival. The idea that humans can live with wild animals without fear by developing some kind of cooperative understanding is straight out of the pages of Tarzan and have little basis in reality. Primitive peoples are routinely attacked and killed by wild animals. This includes snakes, hippos, elephants, lions, tigers, alligators, crocodiles, scorpions, spiders, bees, etc., etc.

Wild animals capable of killing you will not attack you if 1)they are afraid of you and prefer to avoid you, 2)they are not hungry or actively hunting 3)they do not recognize you as prey and 4)they are not suddenly startled by your presence and as a result, feel threated or an attack response is triggered. Therefore, the way to live with wild animals is to respect them and realize that they can and will hurt you, not from some kind of malice, but from instinct. Those that are capable of learning and can learn to recognize you as a nonthreatening will be less likely to attack you (e.g., gorillas, chimpanzees, wolves, elephants) but nevertheless, they are wild animals and not Disney creations and retain a certain element of unpredictability. This is true even of animals that are well domesticated. A cow, horse, or pig, for instance, will attack and kill you under certain circumstances that can be unpredictable.

So yes, you can live with wild animals, but no, not because you've developed some kind of friendship or mutual understanding, but because you have developed a respect for their wild, primitive nature. Crocodiles have learned your gentle ways and will lie in the shallow waters waiting for you to wade into the river, seize you by the ankles, drag you into deep water where you will drown and then they will eat you. No amount of rapport will alter that.
 
Gotta agree with Hoodoo, I doubt that a lot of the critters are capable of the kind of learning this is implying.

One interesting thing is the widespread belief that wolves don't attack humans (at least healthy humans). I have read lots of accounts of wolf attacks on humans just in the 19th century alone in North America. Yet for some reason, people seem to think they won't. Again, this doesn't make the wolf "bad" or "evil" (unless you are little red riding hood), it's just being a wolf.
 
I recall reading that there was a virtual hysteria regarding wolves attacking humans in the 1600's. I can't for the life of me remember the author or the source. Anyway, according to the author, the likely reason was a supposed breakout of rabies in wolves transmitted from domestic dogs. This was supposed to be the origin of greatly exaggerated incidences of wolf attacks on humans, and incidentally, the little red riding hood myth. Perhaps, if our efforts to counteract the "wolves eat people all the time" myth, we've gone too far to the other extreme.

Patrick
 
With regard to wolves, my trapper friend Reinhart was living alone at Russell Post, a small group of cabins (about 100-150 miles from the nearest village) on the MacMillan River in the Yukon. One day he noticed a lot of wolf tracks about a mile from the cabins. After a couple days, they were within a half mile. Later, they were within a few hundred yards. Eventually he found himself near the cabins at the edge of the river with an entire pack of wolves coming deliberately at him across the frozen river. They were lined up behind a large black male.

When the wolves closed to inside 100 yds, he dropped the leader. The others took off. He didn't see any wolf tracks anywhere near the cabins for the rest of the winter. It appeared that learning had occurred very quickly and effectively.
 
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