58 replies to this topic

[Kat]

This is related to evolution because for some humans to have developed advantages to other predators there has to be a distinction between them that was/is otherwise non-existent before them.

Consider this, humans are both the prey and predators to themselves. What is it that gives one human an advantage over the other? I believe that there is to some degree evolution to allow that one of the humans has an advantage over the other in the first place.

Again that is just my opinion.

Are you still talking about murder? So being a sociopath would be considered evolution?...

Also, where's the "this thread is stupid" poll option

Edited by Kats, 16 February 2012 - 02:16 PM.

[Bone]

This is related to evolution because for some humans to have developed advantages to other predators there has to be a distinction between them that was/is otherwise non-existent before them.

Consider this, humans are both the prey and predators to themselves. What is it that gives one human an advantage over the other? I believe that there is to some degree evolution to allow that one of the humans has an advantage over the other in the first place.

Again that is just my opinion.

I don't know anyone who predates people.

[NapisaurusRex]

Now if a tiger somehow managed to get into my city, and found itself in my vicinity, there is utterly no way I would be able to take it down. I don't have the weapon/s necessary, I don't have a car to try and run over it with or make a speedy getaway, and I don't have the tough animal hide, claws, teeth or muscles which would be required to successfully defeat this beast. If tigers frequented my area to hunt me, I'd probably be better prepared, but that would only be because of the inventions of other humans, rather than my own.

As it stands right now, I am not an apex predator, as I'm in no position to kill animals that may consider me yummy.

So you live in a city? Then actually, you are the apex predator because there are no animals in your ecosystem to kill you. You kill spiders in your house, right? You kill mosquitoes, flies, wasps, etc.?

[Waser Lave]

So you live in a city? Then actually, you are the apex predator because there are no animals in your ecosystem to kill you. You kill spiders in your house, right? You kill mosquitoes, flies, wasps, etc.?

Those things like flies, wasps etc aren't prey though so technically humans aren't predators in a city environment because they don't actually kill to eat there.

[redlion]

Well, for that matter neither do bears - they eat a wide variety of foods from nuts and berries to horses and livestock. Though bears are not particularly sneaky, they are quite powerful and do kill and eat other animals for a portion of their diet. Would they likewise not be considered predators?

You're confusing the issue. The fact that bears are omnivorous has no bearing on their apex predator status. Nothing eats a fully grown, healthy bear - with the possible exception of humans. Therefore, regardless of whether or not they eat plants, they are predators with no natural enemies.

As to Napiform, dropping a human into the Amazon is not taking them out of their ecosystem. Humans can survive and thrive in virtually any land biome. As I brought up earlier, the only ecosystems that we cannot easily survive in are water systems, hence the comment about sharks not being natural predators of humans.

[NapisaurusRex]

As to Napiform, dropping a human into the Amazon is not taking them out of their ecosystem. Humans can survive and thrive in virtually any land biome. As I brought up earlier, the only ecosystems that we cannot easily survive in are water systems, hence the comment about sharks not being natural predators of humans.

You're right. I was confusing habitats and ecosystems.

[Nymh]

You're confusing the issue. The fact that bears are omnivorous has no bearing on their apex predator status. Nothing eats a fully grown, healthy bear - with the possible exception of humans. Therefore, regardless of whether or not they eat plants, they are predators with no natural enemies.

I'm not confusing the issue at all. I was posing the question to Sweeney - he stated that humans who hunt are not predators because they do not solely rely on their kills for their food. I said that if that is the case, then bears are not predators either, because they are likewise omnivorous. It is obvious that bears are predators, but by his logic they would not be.

So if omnivorous bears can be predators, then so can omnivorous humans. We may not be apex predators like the bear, but we are at least, in part, predators.

[onlyme]

Also, where's the "this thread is stupid" poll option

[namida]

God that's so funny