What If Animals Started Hunting Humans?
As human beings, we're sort of . . . USED to existing at the top of the food chain.
Sure, we realize that there's danger around us, but we're no longer in the same position
as our ancient ancestors, fighting for our lives against the elements and the unknown.
But what if that all changed?
This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question; what if animals
started hunting humans?
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Well, for starters, animals DO hunt, kill and sometimes even devour members of our species.
The main difference is that usually the reasons behind these attacks are fear, provocation,
or extreme hunger. Animals don’t stalk us for sport, or out of malice. This doesn't
make the attacks that DO occur any less shocking or violent, but, for lack of a better expression,
it's just the circle of life. It's in their nature for animals to behave in this fashion.
The key to the question at hand, then, relies upon a hypothetical: that the animal kingdom
somehow collectively decides to hunt us all down, either for food, the thrill of the kill,
or perhaps even revenge!
There already exists a simple and self-explanatory term to describe an animal that makes human
meat part of its diet. They’re called “man-eaters,” and among them are the most dangerous apex
predators in the world. It's these species that would likely pose the biggest immediate
threat.
African lions already sometimes prey on humans, dragging farmers from fields and other victims
right from their beds. Statistics are scarce, but between 1990 and 2005, lions in Tanzania
killed 70 people a year on average. Historically, tigers have been even more prolific human
killers, with one Bengal tigress, the Champawat Tiger, single-handedly claiming 436 victims.
Leopards have been no slouches either, racking up similarly shocking kill counts. Such attacks
have been attributed to close cohabitation with humans, changes in habitat, or crippling
injuries. But imagine if these wild cats suddenly started going out of their way to hunt us
down!
Wolves, bears, and mountain lions would also pose formidable threats. Imagine wolf packs
and cougars haunting the outskirts of our towns, venturing further in each night, while
grizzlies prowl our front yards. We’d have to build fences and walls around our towns
and cities, but good luck if you’ve landed THAT job! And fences wouldn’t stop snakes,
which would still slither through or under, and right into our homes.
We’d have to protect our weakest and youngest at all costs. Wolves and even wild chimpanzees
have been known to prey upon infants or small pets, should they be left unattended. Meanwhile,
scavenging animals such as dingoes, coyotes and hyenas are known to boldly attack humans,
especially children, if they're hungry enough to warrant the risk. If they became active
human hunters, children could be most at risk.
Of course, if we're going to imagine that animals have decided to hunt us, what’s
to stop this question from going further into a “Planet of the Apes” type scenario?
What if animals somehow developed higher intelligence, igniting a species war across the globe? It’s
a fanciful thought, but also terrifying. With “higher” intelligence, the idea of animals
killing for revenge, spite or other motives now becomes plausible and even probable. So
does the prospect of animals using tools to do so - or even turning our own weapons against
us. Given our physical disadvantages compared to our animal brethren, would we even stand
a chance?
One thing is for sure, we’d have to fight smarter, and not harder, in order to counter
the evolutionary advantages afforded to our animal enemies. We may not have sharp teeth
or claws, but we do have our opposable thumbs, organizational skills, and technologies. We’d
have to draw on every advantage to defend ourselves against the hunting raids of lions,
tigers, and bears! Location would be key, with many environmental areas probably becoming
off-limits. Can you imagine trying to escape from a frenzy of sharks, or a pod of killer
whales, on their home turf? Swamplands would pose similar risks, thanks to crocodiles and
alligators. On the up side, at least some of these animals would be restricted to their
natural habitats.
Even these threats pale however in comparison to something smaller, yet deadlier: the mosquito.
The prospect of mosquitoes intentionally infecting us with malaria, or some other devastatingly
infectious disease would be disastrous. The results would likely rival the Black Death
in Europe as a pandemic of the highest order, decimating humanity's numbers in no time.
There’s also good news though! Our domestic dogs and feline friends would probably stick
by us, due to millennia of domestication. We better hope so, anyway, because we’d
need their help to detect and fend off the other animals hunting us down. And if man’s
best friend did decide to turn on us, well, the enemy would already be in our homes . . .
If any scenario, it's almost certain that extinction rates would rise astronomically.
In our struggle to survive, we’d no doubt decimate animal populations around the world.
This would have a ripple effect throughout the ecosystem, and the impact would have to
be studied for years before it was fully understood. And that isn’t taking into account the possibility
that the animal kingdom would be shaken up by new hunting patterns, thanks to a heightened
sense of sport, thrill and pleasure.
The long and short of it is that if animals started hunting humans, we’d struggle to
survive, and our eventual victory would be far from assured. The end result could likely
end up looking close to something found in a post-apocalypse movie, a la “Mad Max”
or "A Boy and His Dog," where life is a never-ending battle for survival. We would have to take
full advantage of what evolution has gifted us over time, while simultaneously taking
lessons from the lives of our ancestors, where living as both predator and prey was nothing
new.
The playing field being level, then, it would all come down to one, chilling but realistic
mantra: survival of the fittest. And that's what would happen if animals started hunting
humans.
What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these
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