Quote:
Originally Posted by cdru
1) I actually don't have a page reference, but don't most animals fight with front paws more like arms than legs?
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Depends very much on the animal. Most quadrupeds cannot rotate their forearms and shoulders like humans can - we're brachiators and well gifted in that department.
Cats, bears, and other predators that "swat" at prey animals or "hook" them can rotate their forearms to point their palms inwards. They even have a little ability to "flap" their shoulder out to the side, but not much. Bears "hook" salmon out of streams, but it's not like a "right hook" or roundhouse - it's more like reaching straight out and then slapping it to the side. Cats grab at the hind legs of fleeing prey to trip them up and then grapple (big cats) or just grapple (small cats).
Bears, and cats both big and small will swat at things, but they do this by lifting their leg up and bringing it down on the target more or less vertically. If they need to attack a higher target, they have to stand on their hind limbs (which bears are famous for). These are raking downward blows, which really are similar to a rearing horse bringing its forehoof down on some unfortunate - and they're not very like punching.
Canines, hoofed animals, and suchlike have somewhere between a limited ability to twist the arm (dogs) to none (horses) and usually
very restricted shoulder mobility - without collar bones, there's a
lot of muscles used to support the shoulder joint, and it restricts movement. If anything, they have
more freedom of movement with the hind legs - a camel is fully capable of kicking you when you're standing 6 feet to the
side of it, but only with the hind leg.
Birds can of course batter at things with their wings, but while they have great mobility I wouldn't call what they're doing much like the way humans use arms.