Among animals of the same size, the combat effectiveness of humans with bare hands should be the weakest in the animal kingdom. Let’s not talk about how difficult it is for humans to kill leopards and other animals of the same size with bare hands, even if they are herbivores. , humans may not be able to win, such as sheep, as one of the most common domestic animals, even adult men can only avoid the edge of an angry ram.

In addition to adult humans having weak fighting power, Compared with other animals of the same size, human babies are weaker, because most animal babies of the same size as humans can move freely soon after birth, especially the babies of herbivores, which are born as soon as possible. They can stand, walk, or even run within ten minutes. The cubs of carnivores are relatively weak and can move freely in only ten days. However, it takes at least more than a year for human babies to walk.

However, even though human beings have such weak combat power, in the wild environment, once they encounter wild animals, they will most likely turn around and run away. Even huge beasts like tigers usually do this. This in the end is why? Let’s talk about this interesting issue together.

Human beings are a "young" species on the earth, because the earliest direct ancestor of human beings is the Australopithecus that lived about 3 million years ago. The human ancestors at that time were completely unable to compete with today's Human beings are comparable, and most wild animals are not only not afraid of humans, but there are also some ferocious beasts that hunt humans.

During the Australopithecus period, the greatest threats to them were the direcats and Macrognathus. Scientists have learned this from the tooth marks on many Australopithecus bone fossils. This is confirmed, which means that in the early human stage, wild animals were not only not afraid of humans, but also hunted humans as food.

So, how did early humans survive in this situation? This is due to two behaviors of early humans: The first is to live in groups. Living in groups can greatly improve the survival rate of young and young adults, because when encountering predators, the old, weak, sick and disabled are obviously more likely to be hunted, thus Provide opportunities for survival to juveniles (taken away by adults) and young adults.

Second, the direct ancestor of human beings is Australopithecus afarensis. According to scientists, Australopithecus afarensis Research on the hands, feet and shoulder joints found that although Australopithecus afarensis can simply walk upright, walking on four legs and arborealism are still their most common ways of survival. Arborealism should account for a larger proportion, while arboreal living should account for a larger proportion. One advantage of living in a habitat is that it can avoid being hunted by predators on the ground as little as possible.

Therefore, most wild animals are afraid of people because they have actually undergone a transformation, that is, from not being afraid or even being hunted to being afraid. So what caused this change in wild animals? Let’s talk next.

In fact, herbivores should be born with fear of humans, because humans have some characteristics of carnivores, the most obvious ones It’s the eyes. I don’t know if you have noticed that the eyes of herbivores are usually on both sides of the face, separated by the high raised facial bones in the middle. One advantage of this eye position is that it allows for a wider field of vision. , which is more conducive to detecting dangers around you.

The eyes of most carnivores are on a flat surface. The disadvantage of this eye position is that the field of view requires It is much narrower and usually can only see the scene within less than 180° in front of it, but it plays a vital role for predators: it is more conducive to locking prey, because the eyes will overlap on the same plane. This makes the scene in front of you clearer, and is more conducive to targeting prey when hunting.

Although humans are omnivores, like most carnivores, their eyes are on the same plane. That is to say, humans have the eyes of carnivores, which will make herbivores instinctively fear humans. Therefore, herbivores’ fear of humans has not changed.

The change in carnivore fear of humans is due to three changes in humans: the first is the change in the living environment; the second is the change in the position of the food chain; The third is the change in the way of walking.

First of all, let’s look at the first change. The evolution speed of human beings is relatively fast. All this is due to the continuous evolution of human brains. The evolution of the brain will make Animals have stronger abilities to process information and learn. Therefore, the living environment of humansIt is also changing with the evolution of the brain.

Early animals were not afraid of humans because humans had no fixed abode in the early days. Like other wild animals, they used the sky as their cover and the earth as their bed. This allowed wild animals to often encounter people. This makes wild animals relatively familiar to people. Precisely because of familiarity, fear naturally disappears.

However, with the continuous development of human beings, people moved from the wild to caves and began to gradually stay away from the wild environment. Later, humans began to domesticate animals, further reducing entry The number of times in the wild environment makes humans more and more unfamiliar to wild animals. Animals will instinctively be wary of strange animals, so wild animals begin to be wary of humans.

Secondly, let’s take a look at the changes in the position of the food chain. Early humans would fall prey to ferocious beasts, but with the continuous evolution of human brains and the continuous innovation of tools, the position of this food chain began to change. Human beings began to counterattack from the Stone Age and began to hunt animals. This made the original Herbivores who are afraid of humans are even more afraid of humans.

After the end of the Stone Age, humans entered the Bronze Age. At this time, traps and long-range lethality weapons appeared one after another, allowing humans to not only hunt herbivores, but also carnivores. Especially after the invention of firearms, humans have successfully stood at the top of the food chain.

After humans had no worries about food and clothing, their numbers began to expand, and their invasion of the wild environment also intensified. This led to conflicts between humans and wolves, tigers and leopards and other carnivores. Obviously, in this conflict, humans won. , this can be seen from the fact that these animals have now become protected animals.

Due to long-term unilateral slaughter, these beasts have developed a fear of humans, making most wild animals afraid of humans.