The question being posed is are humans the current Apex Predators?
Before you ask what an Apex Predator is here is a couple quotes explaining:
An apex predator is an animal who, as an adult, has no natural predators in its ecosystem. The great white shark is an example of an apex predator.
Source: About.com Marine Life
predators that are not preyed upon as healthy adults in the wild. Full scavengers (e.g. most vultures), although they may not be preyed on either, are not counted as apex predators unless they at least partially depend on capturing live prey. Many species listed here are only Apex predators within certain environments, e.g. Coyotes are only apex predators when larger predators such as the Gray Wolf or the Brown Bear are absent.
Source: Wikipedia Partial List of Apex Predators
Essentially an Apex Predator is an animal, or person, that has no natural predator in their given ecosystem.
It is arguable that in a one on one fight an animal, such as a Mountain Lion, will prove dominate to any given human (Enter Chuck Norris/Betty White jokes here). Factor in our numbers, tools, weapons, and upper level intelligence and it is easy to see how we can be considered an Apex Predator if not the Alpha Apex Predator. A one on one match with a Great White Shark doesn't seem fair unless you give the human a Spear Gun then it balances out the situation.
A different thing to consider is should humans be considered Apex Predators in the first place?
Edited by Yung, 16 February 2012 - 09:20 AM.