12-21-2020, 09:43 AM | #81 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: Make Animals Threatening [Basic]
The main thing I'd think an usually intelligent animal to do would be to understand when humans are vulnerable and when they are not. When should they back up from the spear? Which human is actually a good combatant and which is a pushover? When can the humans see them?
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12-22-2020, 02:37 AM | #82 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Udine, Italy
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Re: Make Animals Threatening [Basic]
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However, as to the last one, I'd add that many animals, including those that are usually preys rather than predators, are pretty used to notice when a potential predator is training its eyes on them. Before attacking a prey, a predator does just that - stares at it. It's threatening, and entirely perceived as such in the animal world. So, when a human (usually perceived as a threat by most animals) looks in the direction of the animal, it's easy for the animal to understand that either the human can actually see it, or at the very least he's looking for it, and in the right direction. |
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12-22-2020, 05:26 AM | #83 |
Join Date: Dec 2020
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Re: Make Animals Threatening [Basic]
I once have seen a video of a giraffe killing a dove in a zoo an eating the corpse, there was a comment of a veterinary that most herbivores can do this if they lack certain vital nutrients.
As for tactics a lot of predators use really advanced pack tactics, not only wolfes and lions, even mostly solitary hunters as bears or gepards. A common one is that one part of the group is chasing the prey into a waiting ambush, or every member of the pack takes his turn to harass the prey, so that it is out of fatigue when the main attack starts. Diverting the prey from their group is another often used one, so that the hunters can focus undisrupted on it. By the way some herd animals have a behavior that is a bit altruistic, if an attack starts sometimes a weaker or wounded individual stays behind, so the rest can escape. There was even studies that sick greenflys wait if a ladybird comes. No I´m not joking. On the other hand it´s reported that some herd animal even kill a weaker member, so that the rest can escape while the predators feed. Last I´ve seen in TV a bison bull running over a wounded calf, literally breaking the neck. The calf was doomed aniway, because the wolfes encircled it, but some of the pack where harassing another animal, so killing the calf rescued at least one. |
12-22-2020, 08:33 AM | #84 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Make Animals Threatening [Basic]
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So, yes, having something like human-level intelligence can make animals much more threatening.
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